Eccles Cakes

1. For the pastry, dice the butter and freeze until really hard. Tip the flour into a food processor with half the butter and pulse to breadcrumbs. Pour in the lemon juice and 100ml iced water and pulse to a dough, then add the rest of the butter and pulse a few times until heavily flecked. Stop there, as those butter flecks are what make it flaky.
2. On a floured surface, roll the pastry out to a neat 20 x 30cm rectangle. Fold the two ends into the middle, then fold in half, roll out again and repeat 3 more times, resting the pastry for at least 15 minutes between each roll and fold, then chill for at least 30 minutes.
3. For the filling, melt the butter in a large saucepan, take off the heat and stir in all the other ingredients until mixed, then set aside.
4. Roll the pastry out a little thicker than a £1 coin and cut out 8 rounds about 12cm across. Place a heaped tablespoon of filling in the middle of each, brush the edges with water, gather the pastry around the filling and squeeze together. Flip so the smooth side is up, pat into a round and flatten with a rolling pin to an oval until the fruit just pokes through, then place on a baking tray. Cut 2 small slits in each, brush with egg white and sprinkle with sugar.
5. Heat the oven to 220C/200C fan/gas 8 and bake for 15 to 20 minutes until just past golden and sticky. Cool on a rack and enjoy warm or cold.

Tips from the ZestyPlate Kitchen

• Keep the butter cold and leave the flecks visible. Those pockets of fat are what make the pastry shatter when you bite in.
• Chill the pastry between folds. Warm pastry tears and the layers smear together rather than staying distinct.
• Cut two small slits in each top so steam can escape and the fruit pokes through without splitting the pastry open.
• A brush of egg white and a heavy scatter of sugar give that glassy, crackled finish.