Banbury cakes

Name: Banbury cakes
Yield: For 10 cakes
Cuisine: United Kingdom
Ingredients: 50 g (1¾ oz) candied citrus peel; ¼ tsp ground nutmeg; ¼ tsp ground cloves; 1 egg yolk + 1 tbsp milk, for egg wash; flour, for dusting; 130 ml (4 fl oz) ice-cold water; ¼ tsp ground mace; ½ tsp sea salt; ¼ tsp ground cinnamon; 240 g (8½ oz) plain (all-purpose) flour; 240 g (8½ oz) butter, cut into cubes no larger than 1 cm (½ inch); 100 g (3½ oz) apple purée; 60 g (2¼ oz) currants; 60 g (2¼ oz) cake crumbs (left-over from other baking; defrosted if frozen); caster (superfine) sugar, for sprinkling

Preparation info

For
10
cakes

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Oats in the North, Wheat from the South

By Regula Ysewijn

Published 2020

About

You are welcome to make traditional puff pastry, but my quick method works every time and costs you half the effort. Just make sure your butter is cut in small enough cubes and frozen, and keep the dough as cold as you can while you do the folding.

Ingredients

For the quick puff pastry

240 g (8½ oz) butter, cut into cubes no larger than 1 cm (½ inch)
240 g

Europe
United Kingdom
Preserve
Pie
Vegetarian

Method

Put the diced butter in the freezer for 30 minutes. Put the flour and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer and place in the fridge if you have space.

Take the butter from the freezer and the bowl from the fridge. Toss the butter in the flour so that the butter is coated with flour. This will prevent sticking.

Pulse the mixture twice for 1 second. Add half of the cold water and