Christmas Cake Cookies

If you are a regular reader of this blog you may have picked up on the fact that I am not a huge fan of dried fruit.  I can tolerate it, sometimes I quite fancy a fruit scone. Given the choice though, chocolate or creamy desserts always come out on top for me.  However, I am rather partial to an oatmeal cookie with my Butler's hot chocolate.  The cookies are rather substantial in size with a perfect chewy consistency and are perfect on a cold winters day, it's spices warming you from within.

As I soaked some fruit for a Christmas cake mixture the other night I remembered the Butler's cookie and wondered would it be possible to create something similar but with a festive twist.  I find that Christmas cake can be a little fruit heavy and wanted a lighter alternative to enjoy while faces are stuffed with cake and pudding on the big day.  I sat and scribbled in my notebook that evening and came up with a recipe I thought would work.  I busied myself in the kitchen this afternoon testing out my efforts and I am more than pleased with the end result.  So happy in fact that I scoffed two in quick succession and my brain has been monopolised with thoughts of a third ever since.

These cookies are the perfect baking exercise for a snowy Sunday afternoon.  I highly recommend eating while still warm from the oven, accompanied by a steaming mug of hot chocolate; or allow them to cool and serve with a glass of milk.  They are delicious either way, that is why I had to eat two, so that I could inform you accurately.  It's tough but I have to do it for the greater good of cookie lovers everywhere.  Enjoy!

Christmas Cake Cookies
(Makes 12 large cookies)

110g/4oz Unsalted Butter, softened
170g/6oz Dark Brown Sugar
0.25tsp Salt
1 Large Egg
1tsp Vanilla Extract
2tbsp Water
2tbsp Brandy
2tbsp Treacle
90g/3oz Plain Flour
0.5tsp Baking Powder
0.5tsp Baking Soda
1tsp Ground Cinnamon
0.5tsp Mixed Spice
0.5tsp Ground Nutmeg
100g/3.5oz Oatmeal Flakes
30g/1oz Crystallised Ginger, finely chopped
40g/1.33oz Raisins
40g/1.33oz Sultanas
40g/1.33oz Currants
40g/1.33oz Dried Cranberries
50g/1.66oz Almonds, blanched and chopped

1.  Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4.
2.  Line two baking sheets with greaseproof paper.

3.  In a large bowl cream together the butter, sugar and salt, with an electric whisk, until smooth.  Add the egg, vanilla, water, brandy and treacle and whisk to combine.  The mixture might seem quite wet and runny don't worry, this is exactly how it should be.
4.  Sieve the flour, baking powder, baking soda and spices into the wet ingredients.  Add the oat flakes and gently fold in. 
5.  Add the crystallised ginger(toss this in a little flour to stop it sticking together and sinking), dried fruit and nuts and mix to distribute evenly.  The mixture may still seem quite wet at this stage but it will be fine.
6.  Using an ice cream scoop place level scoops of the mixture onto the prepared baking sheets approximately 1.5" apart(they will spread in the oven).  Flatten the tops slightly with the back of a wet spoon.

7.  Place into the preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes.  The cookies should still be slightly wobbly when they come out of the oven but with a thin, crisp shell.  They will firm up slightly as they cool, but will remain moist and chewy on the inside.  Allow to cool for 10 mins on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.  Store in an airtight container(if they last long enough to be stored that is).

Chester Slice(Gur Cake)

I have never been a particularly sporty person.  As I child I would much rather be curled up reading a book than outside running around.  Today, I would much rather be curled up with a good book than outside running around. See?!  I have always loved swimming though.  Since I was a little girl, well littler girl I have loved splashing about in a pool.

Every Saturday morning my sister and I would go to our local swimming baths.  We both learned to swim there.  I still remember my lovely orange arm bands with the navy blue writing on them.  I would kick my little legs furiously in an effort to propell myself from one side of the pool to the other, completely knackered from my efforts once I had reached my destination. 

When we arrived the overpowering stench of chlorine would greet us at the door accompanied by the giddy screams of children already splashing about.  We would hand over our money at the hatch in return for a monster plastic crate to fill with our belongings.  Under the weight of enormous said crate we would stagger to the freezing cold changing rooms to don are no doubt fabulous swim suit, arm band, rubber hat ensmble.  Suitably attired we did the 4 minute mile back to the hatch on our tippy toes(seriously, this place used to be fu reezin), to hand over our now full and heavier crates in exchange for a blue rubber wrist band.  Now the only thing between us and the pool was the dreaded wall of ice cold water.  It didn't matter how small you tried to make yourself in an attempt to squeeze through the gaps, it ALWAYS drenched you.

Drenched and colder still there was nothing left but to plunge into the pool in an attempt to regain a smidgen of lost heat.  And there we would stay, a blissful hour submerged until the siren heralded the end of our fun and we two little prunes sploshed back to retrace our steps.  Cold, shrivelled and with dripping hair we would emerge from the echoey confines for the 5 minute walk home.  A little stop of at the shop on the way to spend the few pence we had been gifted before leaving home would yield a bar of chocolate for me and a chester slice for my sister.  Every week the same routine. 

With 10p she would become the proud owner of a thick, fragrant hunk of ebony cake, carefully ensconced within a brown paper bag, protected by a small square of plastic wrap.  I can't remember what she bought with her change because I was always fascinated by the cake.  I have never been a fan of dried fruit so wouldn't taste it but I remember how good it smelled.  Warm spices giving a little nod to winter and Christmas even on a warm summers day.  I remember it with a very thin layer of dark chocolate on top but she disagrees with me and says it was merely the dark contents within staining the outer pastry layer to give the illusion of such luxuries.

Fast forward 20 years or so and I recounted this story to my husband, and he maintains he did exactly the same thing with his sister.  I'm not sure if this is a coincidence or some sort of Irish childhood ritual, maybe you lovely people can shed some light on this one for me.  He also fondly remembers weekly trips to his local swimming pool and on the way home he would stop with his sister for a chester slice from Mannings bakery.  He agrees with me about the chocolate topping because he says it is the only reason he bought them.  Did you have chester slice cakes when you were little?  Did they have chocolate or is my memory playing tricks on me?  I'd love to know so leave me a little comment. Go on.

Chester Slice(Gur Cake)

Having done a little investimagating it would seem that a Chester Slice and Gur Cake are one and the same.  I think someone somewhere along the way must have renamed it in an attempt to make it sound more appealing.  You see a Gur Cake is essentially a poor mans cake, the scraps of bread in a bakery mixed up with some dried fruit and sandwiched between 2 sheets of pastry.  In our house going on Gur would mean to do without, the only luxury being a piece of Gur Cake.  If you were on Gur you really didn't have much going for you, either the  cupboards were bare or maybe you were out of favour with your loved one and wouldn't receive much in the line of sustinence or other *cough*.  I would love to know the meaning of the word Gur for others though, so again, please leave me a lovely little comment. 

This is my version of a Chester Slice or Gur Cake.  It is really open to being tinkered with as the recipe would change from day to day in the bakery depending on what scraps were available so please feel free to adapt the recipe to your own taste.

2 Sheets Ready Roll Short Crust Pastry
110g/4oz Plain Flour
1tsp Baking Powder
1tsp Ground Ginger
1/2 a stale Madeira Cake, crumbled (I used half a 1lb madeira loaf)
2 generous handfuls of Mixed Dried Fruit
60g/2oz Granulated Sugar
6tbsp Treacle
1 Egg Beaten
2tbsp Milk
100g Plain Chocolate

1.  Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6. 
2.  Line the bottom of a brownie pan with 1 sheet of pastry and trim the excess
3.  Sieve the flour, baking powder and ground ginger into a bowl.
4.  Add the cake crumbs, mixed fruit, sugar and treacle and mix.  It will be quite a stiff, dense mixture.

5.  Spread this evenly over the pastry sheet in the pan.

6.  Lay the second pastry sheet over the top and trim the excess.
7.  Brush with the beaten egg mixed with the milk. 
8.  Mark out squares with a sharp knife and place in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.

9.  Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool. 
10.Once cool cut into the marked squares.
11.Melt the chocolate in a heat proof bowl set over a pot of simmering water.
12.Dip the top of each square into the melted chocolate to coat evenly and allow to set.