St John Eccles Cakes

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 ounces unsalted butter
• Scant 4 ounces dark brown sugar
• 7 3/4 ounces currants
• 1 tsp ground allspice
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 3 egg whites, beaten with a fork
• Shallow bowl of caster sugar
• Puff Pastry
• 1 pound 2 ounces strong white flour
• 2 tsp sea salt
• 4 1/2 ounces cold unsalted butter, diced, plus 1 cup cold unsalted butter
• 1 cup cold water
• 2 tsp white wine vinegar

Directions

1. Make the puff pastry first. Sift the flour into a bowl, add the salt and diced butter, and work the butter through with your fingertips until it resembles fine crumbs. Pour in the water and vinegar, then mix until you have a firm dough. Form it into a ball, cover with cling film, and refrigerate overnight.
2. The next day, remove the pastry from the refrigerator and let it soften for 1-2 hours. The remaining butter needs to be about as cool and pliable as the pastry: too soft and it will seep out, too hard and it can punch through the dough and spoil the layers. To get it there, set the butter between sheets of baking parchment, or use the butter wrappers again, and tap it with a rolling pin until softened.
3. Once the pastry and butter are ready, roll the pastry into a square. Roll each side outward one at a time so the square becomes a cross, leaving the middle thicker and keeping the edges squared off. Set the butter in the middle, shaping it as needed to fit. Fold the arms of the cross around the butter, beginning with the left side, then the right side over that, followed by the top and then the bottom. The combined thickness of the 4 folded arms should match the thicker center, giving you a tidy pastry-wrapped block of butter.
4. Place the pastry with the top seam on the right-hand side, then roll it on a floured surface into a rectangle about 8 inches wide and 28 inches long. Sweep away extra flour, fold the dough in three like a letter by bringing one end to the middle and the other end over it. Turn the pastry a quarter turn so the seam is again on the right-hand side, then roll and fold it once more. Wrap it in plastic wrap and chill for about 4 hours. Do the same process twice more, for a total of 6 roll-and-fold turns, resting the dough after every 2 turns. Wrap the finished pastry in plastic wrap and keep it refrigerated until you need it. It also freezes well.
5. For the filling, melt the butter with the sugar, then stir that mixture into the dry ingredients until thoroughly combined. Leave the filling to cool before you use it.
6. Roll the puff pastry to 1/3-inch thick, then cut out rounds about 3 1/2 inches across. Spoon a mound of filling into the center of each round, lift the pastry edges up and over the filling, and pinch them closed with your fingers. Flip each one over and cut slashes across the top. Brush the tops with egg white, then dip them in the sugar. Bake the Eccles cakes for 15 to 20 minutes in a hot to medium oven, watching carefully so they do not scorch. They may be eaten hot or cold and are especially good with Lancashire cheese.
7. The traditional 3 cuts across the top are said to represent the Holy Trinity.