My Mom has always done a lot of (British) baking over the years and a favourite is her eccles cakes (along with her mincemeat tarts and her pies:). I finally got the recipe from her and here it is; enjoy!
English Eccles Cakes were named for the town of Eccles in Lancashire, and
was a popular pastry in the seventeenth century. However, these cakes
were banned—along with mince pies—by the Puritans in 1650. In fact,
Oliver Cromwell decreed in an act of Parliament that anyone found eating
a currant pie would be imprisoned (for gluttony). Luckily, by the time of the
Restoration, the cakes were once again popular.
Ingredients:
Half pound of puff pastry
2 oz Demerara sugar (brown)
2 oz butter
4 oz currants
2 oz peel
Roll pastry 1/4” thick.
Directions:
Cut rounds about 4” diameter
Warm butter – mix with sugar peel and currants.
Put tsp in center of each round,
Wet edges, draw together and seal
Turn over. Roll to desired size.
Make two or three small cuts across middle.
Brush with white of egg and sprinkle with sugar(white)
Bake for 15 to 20 mins 400 degrees.
