Dried currant Eccles cakes

Weigh 175 g butter and chill for 15 minutes. Mix 225 g flour and salt. Coarsely grate cold butter into flour, regularly tossing to coat the strands. Cut through with a spatula to a rough mixture. Add 80 ml cold water and bring together without lengthy kneading. Wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Wash the orange and finely grate its zest, avoiding the white pith. After the dough has rested, heat the remaining 75 g butter in a saucepan for about 5 minutes with brown sugar, dried currants, candied peel, cinnamon, nutmeg and zest. Mix and cool for 10 minutes before filling. Keep pastry chilled meanwhile.

Use the remaining 15 g flour for worktop and rolling pin. Roll pastry about 0.3 cm thick and cut 9 cm discs, rerolling scraps. Aim for about 24 pieces. Divide all filling between discs. Moisten edges with the remaining 10 ml water and carefully seal by gathering edges into the centre. Place seam-down on paper-lined trays and flatten to about 1.2 cm. Slash tops without reaching the edges, brush with milk and sprinkle with white sugar.

Heat the conventional oven to 220 °C. Space the pastries apart on the trays. Bake the trays one after another for about 15 minutes each until the pastry is golden. Keep the waiting tray refrigerated. Cool the last tray on a rack for 10 minutes. Carefully loosen the pastries with a spatula before any escaped sugar sticks them to the paper.