Eccles Cakes

Ingredients

For the 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

For the puff pastry:

    1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter
    4 cups all-purpose flour
    1 teaspoon salt
    Between 1 and 1 1/2 cups ice water
    1 egg, beaten
    Coarse sugar

Instructions

Make the filling:

soften the butter in an exceedingly tiny cooking pan over medium heat. Add the spices and peel and fry till they're aromatic within the butter. Add the fruit, brandy, and juice. Simmer for 10 or fifteen minutes, stirring often. Let cool, then place within the icebox long to let the flavors very meld.

Make the puff pastry:

Take 3 of the sticks of butter and slice them in 0.5 lengthwise and so once more widthwise. organize them into a parallelogram on an oversized piece of paper. place another piece of paper on prime and roll them the butter out into a 9x12-inch parallelogram between the sheets of waxed paper. Chill for a minimum of four hours.

place the four cups of flour into a kitchen appliance. slice the remaining stick of butter and add it, bit by bit, to the flour and pulse into dust-covered crumbs. Dump the butter-flour crumbs into a giant bowl and add drinking water bit by bit, stirring, simply till the dough comes along. Knead for some minutes till swish. Wrap and refrigerate four hours or long.

Roll the dough out into a 1/4-inch-thick parallelogram and place the butter parallelogram on prime. Fold the corners of the dough over the butter and roll bent its previous size. Fold the perimeters of the dough up to the center, like folding a bit of paper into thirds, then fold it once more in 0.5 — like closing a book. you are operating the butter into the dough in finer and finer layers; the butter if it stays cold can puff the pastry up in delicious and spectacular ways in which once you are finished. Wrap this parcel well Associate in Nursingd reinstate within the icebox for a minimum of an hour or 2.

Take the dough out and roll the allot into the parallelogram once more, then repeat the folding method. this can be operating the butter into the pastry in finer and finer layers. Continue this method - rolling out, then folding. These square measure referred to as turns. Do a minimum of four turns - six or additional is even higher. it is very simple: the longer you let the dough rest and chill between turns, and also the additional turns you are doing, the lighter and flakier your pastry are. I did 5 turns over the course of concerning eight hours, and mine was fine - however if i used to be performing some different reasonably pastry i might undoubtedly let it sit long a minimum of once.

Assemble:

Heat the kitchen appliance to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Take a 3rd of the the puff pastry from the icebox. It ought to be terribly cold and firm, however not laborious. Roll it bent a thickness of concerning 1/8-inch.

Cut tiny circles - I used a biscuit cutter that gave Maine four-inch circles. you may do larger, however I needed heaps of individual pastries. place alittle small indefinite amount of filling (about one teaspoon) within the center of every dough circle.

Fold in 0.5, sort of a potsticker dumpling, and seal the sides together with your fingers. currently bring the 2 pointy edges up and fold them within the center, on the arced seam. change shape the miscroscopic pouch together with your fingers, and roll it into alittle circle - simply skinny enough that the filling shows through the dough a touch. strive to not let it get out, though. create 2 or 3 shallow slashes within the prime of the finished spherical cake.

Brush with crushed egg, and sprinkle with sugar. (Note: i believe that my pastry was pretty heat by this time, from all the handling and rolling. I did not do that at the time, however within the future i believe i might place the finished, unbaked pans of cakes within the icebox or deep freezer to allow them to chill once more - perhaps for Associate in Nursing hour. this is able to create the next, lighter pastry.)

Bake for concerning twenty minutes, or till golden brown and puffy. strive to not eat one right away - the new dried fruit filling can scorch your mouth - believe Maine, I know. These square measure surprisingly smart even many days later.