Yorkshire Fat Rascals

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large mixing bowl
• •Heavy baking sheet
• •Baking parchment
• •Wire cooling rack
• •Pastry brush

Instructions

1. 1

   Heat the oven

   Set the oven to 200C/180C fan. Line a heavy baking sheet with parchment. The oven needs to be properly hot when these go in. A timid oven gives you pale, sad fat rascals, and there's no recovery from that.

   Give the oven a full ten minutes longer than you think it needs. Most home ovens lie about their temperature, and this is a bake that rewards real heat.
2. 2

   Rub in the butter

   Tip the flour, baking powder, mixed spice, nutmeg and salt into a large bowl. Add the cubed butter. Rub it through the flour with your fingertips, lifting your hands to let air in, until the mixture looks like coarse breadcrumbs with a few flecks of butter still visible. Don't overdo it. A bit of unevenness gives you flakes, and flakes are what you want.

3. 3

   Add the fruit and zest

   Stir in the sugar, currants, raisins, candied peel, halved cherries, and the lemon and orange zest. Use a knife or your hand to fold it through. The fruit should be well distributed but you don't need to be precious about it. The zest is doing more work than you'd think. It's the thing that lifts a fat rascal out of stodgy territory and makes it taste like Yorkshire on a clear afternoon.

   If your dried fruit looks tired, give it a five-minute soak in warm water and pat dry before using. Plump fruit makes a better bake.
4. 4

   Bring the dough together

   Beat the egg with the cream in a jug, then pour most of it into the bowl, holding back a tablespoon or so. Bring it together with a butter knife, then your hands, until you have a rough, slightly sticky dough that just holds its shape. Add the rest of the liquid only if it feels dry. You're not after a smooth dough. You're after something rugged that will hold its shape on the tray.

5. 5

   Shape the rascals

   Divide the dough into eight roughly equal lumps. Shape each into a thick round, about three centimetres tall, and place on the lined tray with plenty of space between them. They should look hand-shaped and a bit irregular. That's the whole charm of them. A fat rascal that looks like it came out of a machine has missed the point.

6. 6

   Decorate the tops

   Brush the tops generously with the egg yolk glaze. Press two almonds and two cherry halves into the top of each one to make a face: two cherries for eyes, two almonds for the mouth, or however the mood takes you. They're called rascals for a reason. Give them a bit of character. Brush the almonds and cherries with a little more glaze so they catch the colour in the oven.

7. 7

   Bake until burnished

   Slide the tray into the hot oven and bake for eighteen to twenty minutes. You're looking for a deep, burnished gold, not a pale tan. The tops should be glossy where the glaze has caught, and the bases should sound hollow when you tap them. The kitchen will smell of warm spice and citrus and butter, and you'll know they're ready before the timer does. Trust your nose.

   If they're browning too fast on top before the middles are done, lay a sheet of parchment loosely over the tray for the last few minutes.
8. 8

   Cool and serve

   Lift the tray out and let the rascals settle on the sheet for five minutes, then move them to a wire rack. Eat them just warm, when the fruit is still soft and the butter inside has had a moment to relax. Split one open and add a thick slice of cold salted butter if you like, though they're rich enough to stand on their own. Put the kettle on. We're only making tea.

Chef Tips

• •Cold butter is the whole game. If your kitchen is warm, cube the butter and put it back in the fridge for ten minutes before you start. Warm butter makes a heavy bake. Cold butter gives you the flake.
• •Use proper mixed peel from a decent grocer or make your own if you've got the patience. The plastic-tubbed stuff from supermarkets is usually too sweet and tastes of nothing in particular. Peel is one of those ingredients that looks the same but isn't.
• •Eat them on the day they're baked if you possibly can. They're at their best within a few hours of leaving the oven, when the outsides still have that faint crust and the insides are tender. They'll keep for two or three days in a tin, but they're a different thing the next morning. Still good. Just different.
• •A pot of strong black tea is the only proper companion. Yorkshire tea if you're feeling regional, builders' brew if you're not. Coffee somehow doesn't suit them. I can't explain it.

Advance Preparation

• •The dough can be made a few hours ahead, shaped on the tray, and kept covered in the fridge until you're ready to bake. Brush with the glaze and decorate just before they go in the oven.
• •Baked fat rascals keep in an airtight tin for two to three days. Refresh them in a moderate oven for five minutes if they've gone a touch firm.
• •They freeze well, baked and cooled, for up to a month. Defrost at room temperature and warm through briefly before serving.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 110g)