Eccles Cakes
It’s only fitting that I kick off this whole malarkey with something from my own neck-of-the-woods and something which, not entirely out of bias, is one of my all-time favourites, Eccles Cakes.
Eccles used to be a borough unto itself and bordered my own district of Flixton. These days, however, the town of Eccles is part of the borough of Salford, about 4 miles west of Manchester. By most accounts Eccles led a reasonably low-key life up until the Industrial Revolution when the Bridgewater Canal and the Liverpool & Manchester Railway brought industry to the area in the form of textiles and iron. But mention the name of Eccles to anyone on these shores and, “Eccles Cakes,” will be the first words you’ll hear. They are delicate little pastries filled with a currants, candied fruit peel, bound with butter and topped with a sprinkling of caster sugar.
Accounts of the Eccles Cake go all the way back to the 18th century and were sold commercially from 1796 by James Birch from a small shop on the corner of Church Street and Vicarage Road in the town. The annals of the Eccles and District History Society tell of Birch moving to larger premises in 1810 only to have the old shop occupied by a former employee, James Bradburn, who set himself up as a rival Eccles Cake maker, the scoundrel. There are a couple of lovely photos of the two shops on their website.
Okay, so my pastry experience is limited at best and I’ve never tried flaky pastry before so this could be messy. This version using frozen butter and lard appealed more than endless rolling, dotting and folding.
- For the flaky pastry (aka rough puff)
- 225g plain flour (AP)
- 90g butter
- 90g lard or margarine
- A pinch of salt
Freeze the butter and lard (I couldn’t find organic lard so I used margarine) for a few hours then coarsely grate them both into the sifted flour. Mix the fats and the pinch of salt into the flour with a knife, leaving nice lumps of fat intact, then slowly mix in some cold water until it comes together into a firm dough. Finally, give it an absolutely minimal knead just to form a ball and into a floured, zip-lock bag it goes for an hour’s rest in the fridge.
- For the currant filling
- 150g currants
- 140g soft brown sugar
- 50g mixed candied peel (chopped)
- 75g melted butter
- The zest of 1 orange (finely grated)
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp grated nutmeg
Put all of the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix thoroughly before stirring in the butter and the filling is ready for the pastry. Thinly roll the pastry out on a floured surface and cut out 9cm disks with a pastry cutter. Spoon one heaped teaspoon of the filling into the centre of each disk then bring the edges around it to meet at the top and pinch it together. Place them pinched side down onto the floured surface and lightly roll them into round, patty shapes, about 2cm thick. Put a couple of slits in each with a knife, brush with milk and sprinkle with caster (superfine) sugar and then bake in a pre-heated oven at 200°C/390°F for 20 minutes or until lightly golden.
I’m delighted (and frankly astonished) that these turned out so well first time. The pastry is crumbly and rich and the filling is just out of this world and destined for mince pies sometime soon. These quantities will yield about a dozen Eccles Cakes, although my inexperience with pastry left me just shy - as well as making my kitchen look like it’s been flour-bombed.
GDave
12 Comments »
The RSS feed for this post is here.
GDave,
Well, well…. so this is where you’ve been hiding… I was beginning to worry
Those Eccles look scrumptious, well done. As to a kitchen that’s been flour bombed… mine always looks like that regardless of recipe. Something tells me Miles wouldn’t stand for it, we’d both be on floor scrubbing duty with electric toothbrushes as penance
Cid
Comment by Cid − on May 27, 2009 at 9:20 pm
Haha! Cid, hi there and welcome.
Yep, I think I’m with you there. Very rarely is my kitchen in any sort of order. I’ve just had a lovely bowlful of Melissa’s spicy squash and I’m quite prepared to leave the washing up until tomorrow. Hurray for sloth!
GDave.
Comment by greedydave − on May 27, 2009 at 9:28 pm
Hi GDave
Keeping it on the Local sweet theme. What about Manchester Tart?…steady…Haven’t tried it myself but would be interested to know if it was any good.
x Sarah
Comment by Sarah − on May 29, 2009 at 11:35 pm
Heya Sarah,
Thanks for that. Yep, Manchester Tart is well up there. Hey now that I’m a master pastry maker it should be a doddle. Making it HyGly-friendly might be tricky but I’d be happy to taste it for you.
GDave
Comment by greedydave − on May 30, 2009 at 2:40 pm
GDave,
I tried a new pastry recipe this week, one made with olive oil. It’s a sort of strudel mix which I wanted to recreate a Spanish biscuit I liked. Very simple it was and could be either sweet or like a plain cracker you might eat with cheese. If I get good at it, I’ll put Jacobs out of business
Cid
Comment by Cid − on May 30, 2009 at 11:15 pm
Cid,
Excellent, I look forward to seeing you on the FTSE. ‘Cid’s Crackers’ … fill in your own punchline.
They sound most intriguing. Do your Spanish crackers have a name?
GDave
Comment by greedydave − on May 31, 2009 at 8:07 pm
GDave,
Certainly one of my favourites, I made one of my French pastry chef make me a batch recently, I scoffed the lot!
Miles
Comment by Miles − on May 31, 2009 at 9:57 pm
Miles,
Good to hear you’re teaching the French about good food.
With our help, someday, their cuisine will be world renowned.
GDave
Comment by greedydave − on May 31, 2009 at 10:45 pm
GDave,
The biscuits/pastries I mentioned are called Ines Rosales sweet torta. Light and crispy with a little sugar/aniseed topping, deliciously different. Quite how they are made I’m not sure but after motoring my way through half a packet, I decided it must be a variation on strudel pastry made with olive oil. There’s a long way to go before I can launch Cid’s Tortas but the pastry mix is simple enough and inexpensive to produce…. well worth a try.
Cid
Comment by Cid − on Jun 1, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Oh my gosh — it’s about dang time you got this show on the road! It will be nice to have another kitchen to hang out in and make a mess of.
Comment by Melissa − on Jun 1, 2009 at 7:56 pm
Cid,
I’ve just had a quick shufty on the internet. They do look good and there’re numerous bloggers singing their praises. Ines’s reign as torta queen is numbered, I think.
GDave
Comment by greedydave − on Jun 1, 2009 at 8:53 pm
Melissa,
Hey there you, thanks for stopping by. You’re dang right it’s overdue, you wouldn’t believe the length of time I’ve owned the webspace before the first post. You pull up a chair and be as messy as you like.
GDave
Comment by greedydave − on Jun 1, 2009 at 8:56 pm