Needed a comfort fix so decided to make a Chester Cake that I saw on the Hairy Bikers Tour of Britain
You need some frozen shortcrust pastry (or make your own)
- 300g stale bread(about 8 slices)
- 350ml fresh, strongly brewed tea
- 150g mixed dried fruit(sultanas, raisins or whatever else takes your fancy)
- 2 tblsp treacle
- 1 tblsp golden syrup
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 0.25 tsp cinnamon
- 0.25 tsp cloves
- pinch of salt
Remove any very thick, hard crusts from the bread and place the bread in a medium-sized bowl and pour the tea over it. Allow the tea to soak in and soften for a minute or two, then mash well with a fork. You need just enough liquid to wet all of the bread – the mashed bread mixture will be stiff rather than overly liquidy.
Stir in fruit, treacle, golden syrup, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and salt. Mix well and leave to plump up for an hour or two.
When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 200C
Remove the pastry from the fridge. Then smooth the filling over the base layer and top with the rest of the pastry. Prick the pastry topping all over with a fork, brush with a little milk.
Bake until golden, around 30 minutes or so. Allow it to cool in the tin before slicing into squares
Optional add icing to top
