Eccles Cakes

Name: Eccles Cakes
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: Plain flour; Cold unsalted butter; Ice cold water; Currants; Caster sugar; Ground allspice; Egg white; Salt

332 kcal a serving, against 368 for the traditional version. That is 36 kcal off, or 10%, with 5.1g of protein. Serves 4. 1 hour.

What the traditional version is

The standard Eccles cake is made by wrapping a generous mound of currants tossed in sugar and allspice inside a thick round of butter-rich puff pastry. Each one gets a glossy sugar glaze before baking. The pastry bakes up tall and extravagantly flaky, making a crunchy, melting contrast with the squidgy, booze-soaked fruit inside.

What changed, and what each change costs

Use a rough puff with less butter, and roll it thinner

Classic puff pastry is mostly just butter and regret. By using 60g rather than 80g and rolling the pastry thinner, you're cutting a good quarter of the fat straight away. Will it rise like a bakery window special? Absolutely not. But you still get some flakes and a bit of crunch, which is enough for a tea break at home.

What it costs you. You lose the full shatteringly light layers. The cakes are slightly denser, with less of that melt-in-the-mouth texture. The outside is more crisp than cloudlike. Still, it's a good excuse to add a bit more fruit.

Stuff in more currants, less sugar

The filling is the best bit and doesn't need a pile of sugar to make it stick. Boosting the fruit by 20g and cutting the sugar by a third makes the filling richer and ups the fibre, without turning the whole thing into a sticky mess.

What it costs you. Not as syrupy-sweet as a shop one, but the filling has more bite and a proper hit of fruit. If you're after the tooth-aching version, this won't cut it.

Egg white for a sugar glaze

Brushing sugar syrup over the pastry makes it glossy, but also tacks on another dose of sugar. Egg white is virtually calorie-free and still gives a nice sheen, with a touch of extra protein for show.

What it costs you. It's not as shiny or sticky as the real thing. You'll just have to look at your own reflection in the kettle instead of your Eccles cake.

What goes in it

The ingredients, without the quantities. The weights are what the figures below are computed from, and they are in the book.

Plain flour
Cold unsalted butter
Ice cold water
Currants
Caster sugar
Ground allspice
Egg white
Salt

How it starts

Make the rough puff pastry: rub the salt into the flour with your fingers.
On a floured surface, roll out the dough roughly 1cm thick and fold into thirds.
Meanwhile, mix the currants, sugar and allspice in a bowl.

The rest of the method, and every weight, is in Authentic-ish British.

The numbers

Per serving	Traditional	Lightened
Calories	368	332
Protein	5g	5.1g
Fat	16.6g	12.6g
Saturated fat	10.2g	7.7g
Carbohydrate	52.1g	52.2g
Protein per 100 kcal	1.4g	1.5g

Every figure is computed from the recipe's own weighed ingredient list against public food composition databases. The appendix in Authentic-ish British prints the exact database row used for each ingredient, so any number here can be checked. How every number is computed sets out the method.

Allergens. gluten, milk, eggs.

The method is in the book

You won't fool anyone from Eccles with this version, but you'll still get a flaky, spicy, fruity parcel that goes brilliantly with tea. The filling dials up the fruit and dials down the sugar hit, so you won't feel like you need to lie down after one. The pastry is more on the crisp side than feather-light, but that's a fair swap for keeping your arteries open. Is it as outrageously good as a full-fat bakery Eccles cake? Of course it isn't - it's a home bake that knows its limits. But the currants sing, the spice comes through, and you'll actually get a bit of protein in the bargain. Save the shop ones for a day when your only other plan is a long nap.

The quantities and the method for this dish are in Authentic-ish British, along with 56 more. Buy the paperback