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

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

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