Currant cake - The Fly Cemetery

This would be a ‘go to’ tray bake because all the ingredients were easily kept.  Traditionally it would be made with a normal short crust pastry with lard as the shortening, but rough puff elevates it to a delicious treat.  Currants used to be hard and dry and required a good soak or boil to make them release their flavour and juces, and some recipes suggest soaking them in tea hot from the pot!  You can do this if you want, but currants are now of much better quality than those available to our mothers and grandmothers.

Ingredients

Rough Puff Pastry

1 lb plain strong flour

12 oz hard margarine

9 fl.oz cold water

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons lemon juice

Filling

1 lb currants

4 oz caster sugar

2 oz butter

1 oz cut peel (optional)

1 tablespoon dark rum

A little freshly grated nutmeg

Method

First prepare the filling.  Put all the ingredients into a pan and melt them together then set aside to cool completely.

Pastry

Sieve flour and salt into a bowl, cut marg into small cubes and toss them in the flour with a knife.  Put the lemon juice into cold water and sprinkle onto the dry mixture. Bind together then turn onto a floured board being careful not to overwork, and form into an oblong shape with a rolling pin.  Keeping the corners square, fold into three, give it a half turn, and leave it for 11 minutes, covered in cling film.  Give two more rollings and foldings then divide it into two, one piece slightly larger than the other.

Use the larger piece to roll out and line a flat oven tin (swiss roll size).

Spread the now cool mixture over the pastry base, then roll out the remaining pastry to cover, moisten the edges to make a seal, and press down thoroughly.

Decorate the top with small cuts to allow steam to escape, and pinch the edges.

Bake for 30 minutes at 190C or until the top is crisp and golden.

Sprinkle with a little caster sugar when cold.