Eccles Cakes
Submitted by melissa
Eccles cakes pack currants, mixed peel and warming spice inside flaky rough puff pastry, glazed with milk and crunchy caster sugar. Classic Lancashire teatime pastry from northwest England.
YIELD
16 servingsPREP
30 minCOOK
25 minREADY
60 minEccles cakes hail from the town of Eccles in Lancashire, England, and they’ve been a teatime staple since the 1700s. A puck of buttery rough puff pastry envelopes a sticky, spiced filling of currants, candied mixed peel, and brown sugar, sealed shut, flipped over, and rolled flat so the filling shows faintly through three diagonal slashes in the top.
Making a true rough puff pastry is what sets a homemade Eccles cake apart from the supermarket version. The layers aren’t as numerous as full puff, but the texture is still flaky and shattering, with that signature buttery crunch. Letting the assembled cakes rest a cold 15 minutes before baking is essential. It firms the butter back up so the pastry puffs rather than spreads in the hot oven.
The milk glaze and thick coat of caster sugar before baking is the finishing touch, creating a crackled, almost candied top that crunches when you bite in. Serve warm or at room temperature with a cup of strong black tea.
Pro Tips
- Make the filling first so it cools fully before going into the pastry, hot filling melts the butter and ruins the layers
- Press the gathered pastry edges firmly when sealing, leaky cakes weep filling onto the tray and burn
- Use proper caster (superfine) sugar for the top, granulated won’t dissolve into that crackled glaze
- Cut deep slits through the top layer of pastry, shallow slits don’t open up during baking
Variations
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees - shelf on second runner from top.
1) Make Rough Puff Pastry as in previous recipe 2) To make the filling, melt the margarine in a saucepan, stir in the other filling ingredients and leave to cool. 3) Roll out the pastry fairly thinly on a floured board. Cut into rounds with a well floured 3½ inch cutter. 4) Place a heaped teaspoon of filling in the centre of each round. 5) Damp the edges with water, then gather the outside edge together over the filling and press together at the top to seal. 6) Turn the cakes over so that the sealed ends are underneath. Roll each gently into round flat shapes. 7) Place on a baking sheet. Leave to rest in a cold place for 15 minutes. 8) Make three slits across the top of each. Brush with milk and sprinkle thickly with castor sugar. 9) Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes. Cool on a wire tray. Makes 16 Eccles cakes
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