Eccles Cakes.
INGREDIENTS:
Filling
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
Peel from 2 lemons
Peel from 2 oranges
2 cups dried currants
1/2 cup golden raisins
2 tablespoons brandy
1/4 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice
INSTRUCTIONS:
·
Melt the butter in a small saucepan over
medium heat. Add the spices and peel and fry until they are fragrant in the
butter. Add the fruit, brandy, and juice. Simmer for ten or fifteen minutes,
stirring occasionally. Let cool, then put in the fridge overnight to let the
flavors really meld.
Puff
Pastry
1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter
4 cups AP flour
1 teaspoon salt
Between 1 and 1/2 cups ice water
·
Take three of the sticks of butter and
slice them in half lengthwise and then again widthwise. Arrange them into a
rectangle on a large piece of wax paper. Put another piece of wax paper on top
and roll them the butter out into a 9x12-inch rectangle between the sheets of
waxed paper. Chill for at least four hours.
·
Put the four cups of flour into a food
processor. Cut up the remaining stick of butter and add it, bit by bit, to the
flour and pulse into dusty crumbs. Dump the butter-flour crumbs into a big bowl
and add ice water gradually, stirring, just until the dough comes together.
Knead for a couple minutes until smooth. Wrap and refrigerate four hours or
overnight.
·
Roll the dough out into a 1/4-inch-thick
rectangle and place the butter rectangle on top. Fold the corners of the dough
over the butter and roll out to its previous size. Fold the sides of the dough
up to the middle, like folding a piece of paper into thirds, then fold it again
in half — like closing a book. You're working the butter into the dough in
finer and finer layers; the butter if it stays cold will puff the pastry up in
delicious and spectacular ways when you're finished. Wrap this parcel well and
put back in the fridge for at least an hour or two.
·
Take the dough out and roll the parcel out
into the rectangle again, then repeat the folding process. This is working the
butter into the pastry in finer and finer layers. Continue this process -
rolling out, then folding. These are called turns. Do at least four turns - six
or more is even better. It's very simple: the longer you let the dough rest and
chill between turns, and the more turns you do, the lighter and flakier your
pastry will be. I did five turns over the course of about 8 hours, and mine was
fine - but if I was doing some other kind of pastry I would definitely let it
sit overnight at least once.
Assembly
1 egg, beaten
Coarse sugar
·
Heat the oven to 375°F. Line a baking
sheet with parchment paper. Take a third of the the puff pastry dough from the
fridge. It should be very cold and firm, but not hard. Roll it out to a
thickness of about 1/8-inch.
·
Cut small circles - I used a biscuit
cutter that gave me four-inch circles. You could do larger, but I wanted a lot
of individual pastries. Put a small dollop of filling (about 1 teaspoon) in the
center of each dough circle.
·
Fold in half, like a potsticker dumpling,
and seal the edges with your fingers. Now bring the two pointy edges up and
fold them in the center, on the curved seam. Flatten out the little pouch with
your fingers, and roll it into a small circle - just thin enough that the
filling shows through the dough a little. Try not to let it leak out, though.
Make two or three shallow slashes in the top of the finished round cake.
·
Brush with beaten egg, and sprinkle with
sugar.
·
Bake for about 20 minutes, or until golden
brown and puffy
Source: thekitchn.com
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