Terrifically Tasty Chorley Cake Recipe

Today Paul is going to bake traditional Chorley Cakes which are a shortbread pastry cake filled with sugar infused currents with a hint of nutmeg. The recipe is virtually unchanged from the original in the 19th century. The cakes were a staple diet for the good folk of Chorley in North West England who in the 19th century almost exclusively worked long days in either the coal mines or the cotton mills. These cakes gave them a welcome energy boost to help them make it through the shift. Today, Chorley Cakes are a popular cake eaten right across the UK, not to keep our strength up, but rather because they taste terrifically tasty. Ingredients to make approx 8 Chorley Cakes: For the Pastry: 200g Plain White Flour 100g Butter (cut into cubes) 3/4tsp Baking Powder 1/2Tsp Salt 3Tbsp Cold Water For the Filling: 200g Currents 50g. Light Brown Sugar 50g Butter 1/8tsp Ground Nutmeg 1 Beaten egg for sealing the edges and glazing Method: Add the flour, baking powder and salt to a large bowl and mix. Cut the butter into small pieces and “rub” into the mix using the tips of the fingers. Add 2 tablespoons of cold water and bring the mixture together into a pastry. Start by using a spatula but eventually use the hands to work into a rough pastry. Use a 3rd tablespoon of cold water if the mix is a little dry but do not make the pastry sticky. Tip the pastry onto a floured worktop and knead a little with the hands until the pastry is nice and smooth. Cover the pastry with cling film or similar and put into the fridge for about 30 minutes. This will relax the glutens in the flour and make the pastry easier to work later. (Do not skip this step) After resting, put the pastry onto a floured worktop and roll out with a rolling pin until the pastry is about 3mm or just over 1/8 inch thick. Cut a 9cm by 9cm (3.1/2 by 3 1/2 inch) square from cardboard or paper and use as a template and cut the pastry into squares. Re-combine and re-roll and offcuts until all the pastry has all been used. There should be enough for about 8 cakes but it depends on how thin the pastry was rolled! Set the pastry squares to one side whilst you make the filling: Put the currents, nutmeg and sugar into a large bowl and mix. Melt the butter in the microwave for about 20 to 30 seconds (or place the butter in a cup and put the cup in a pan of hot water) Once melted add the butter to the current and mix in well. Spread the pastry squares onto the worktop and evenly measure out the current mix across all the squares. Crack an egg into a bowl and beat. Using a brush spread the egg around the upper edges of each square Pick up a corner of a square and fold it into the middle of the square then fold over the other edge so the meet in the middle. Do the same for the other 2 corners and seal with the fingers to form an envelope of pastry with the currents inside. Repeat for the other pastry squares Turn on the oven to heat to 200C (400F or Gas Mark 6) Turn each envelopes over and roll flat until the currents become visible through the pastry ( should be about 8mm to 1cm thick or just over 1/4 inch) Form each cake into a circle buy hand. (No need to be perfect!) Put the cakes onto a baking tray, lined with grease proof (parchment) paper. Cut two or three slashes on the top of each cake and then coat the top of each cake with the egg to glaze. When the oven is up to temperature, bake the cakes for about 12 to 15 minutes until they are a nice golden colour. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire tray. Serve buttered either cold or warm. Can be reheated in the over for 5 minutes on a medium heat but avoid the microwave as the cake may go a bit soft. The Chorley Cakes can be frozen once cooked but for best results freeze before cooking (after glazing phase) and when required cook from frozen for about 25 minutes at 200C. Enjoy! #ChorleyCakes #HomeBaking #EcclesCakes #CemeteryPie #FlyPie #SimplyCooked .