Week 7 - Chorley FC - Chorley Cakes

Week 7 and I have done it again...left it to the last minute so something simple and tasty is required. And so to Lancashire again...

Chorley Football Club...some interesting tidbits (c/o wikipedia)
- Originally a rugby union club in 1875 but switched to association football in 1883.
- Currently playing in the Northern Premier League Division One North (08/09)
- In 1875 Chorley FC began partly as a brainchild of Major John Lawrence, a Wigan player who had conceived the idea a year earlier. The inauguration took place on October 15 in the now demolished Anchor Inn in Markey Street, Chorley.
Some very Random Facts....
* As at Feb 09 the average league game attendance at Victory Park was 250.
* They avoided relegation due to the outbreak of war & their widest victory margin during wartime was 16-0 against Leyland Motors in September 1944.

Chorley Cakes are flattened, fruit filled pastry cakes, traditionally associated with the town of Chorley in Lancashire, England. They are a close relative to Eccles cakes but are slightly less sweet and commonly eated with butter on top and Lancashire cheese on the side. A friend of mine remembers her grandma making these regularly and they would call them fly cakes (or fly pies) after the currants sadwiched between the shortcrust pastry. absoluteastrnomy.com

This recipe is from www.blacktriangle.org

Make a shortcrust pastry and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Filling
170g currants
55g finely chopped dried peel (i was short of this so I used a teaspoon of triple citrus marmelade and some ground dried mandarin peel)
1 Tbsp soft brown sugar
30g butter
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp mixed spice

To Make
Slowely melt butter. Remove from heat, add currants, spices and sugar. Mix well and put aside to cool. Then stir in mixed peel.

i. preheat oven to 200C
ii. roll pastry to 5mm thick. using a large round cutter (or saucer) cut passtry rounds.
iii. In the centre of each place a heaped teaspoon of fruit mixture.
iv. fold the edges into the centre to form a tight pocket, press to make a tight seal.
v. pat down to ensure the gaps of pastry are closed, then with a rolling pin roll the cakes gently until you can see the fruit.
vi. prick the surface with a fork
vii. cook at 200C for 20 minutes or until lightly browned.

on a few of them I sprinked some demerera sugar prior to baking to sweeten slightly. they were yum but i do reccomend using unsalted butter for the pastry as they were a little salty as so missed some of the citrus peel flavours. i suspect that these would also taste quite good with mincemeat (dried fruit mixture). Mum and I tried them warm out of the oven with cheddar cheese and decided that 1. they were better on their own 2. they didn't need extra butter and 3. cheddar cheese isn't lancashire cheese so suspect the lancashire cheese may work better.

It may be time to visit manchester again and make some bakewell tarts next week... perhaps...