Eccles Cakes

Ingredients

For the filling

• 75g butter
• 150g soft brown sugar
• 150g currants
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp freshly ground nutmeg
• 1 orange, juice and finely grated zest
• 50g candied peel

For the pastry

• butter, for greasing
• 375g block ready-made puff pastry
• flour, for dusting
• 2-3 tbsp milk, for glazing
• caster sugar, for dusting
• icing sugar, for dusting

Method

1. For the filling, melt the butter over a low heat in a small saucepan. Once melted, remove from the heat and stir in all of the remaining filling ingredients until well combined. Set aside to cool.

2. Preheat the oven to 220°C and grease a baking tray.

3. For the pastry, roll out the pastry on a lightly floured work surface to a thickness of about 3mm. Using a 6cm cutter, cut the pastry into rounds.

4. Place a teaspoon of the filling in the middle of each round, then brush the edges of half the pastry with milk. Bring the other half of the pastry over and seal. Bring the corners of the pastry up into the middle and pinch to seal.

5. Turn the sealed pastry parcel over, so that the seam is underneath, and place onto the greased baking tray.

6. Slash each cake across three times using the tip of a sharp knife. Brush the cakes with milk and sprinkle with caster sugar.

7. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the pastry is golden-brown and puffed up. Transfer the cakes to a wire rack to cool.

8. Dust the eccles cakes with icing sugar before serving.