Old fashioned lardy cake

AMONG the many treats of visiting England is a freshly-made warm lardy cake served with lashing of cold butter. Scrumptious, though not too kind on the waistline.

Lardy cake is a traditional rich spiced form of bread popular in southern England. The main ingredients are freshly rendered lard, flour, sugar, spices and dried fruit. Lardy cake can be eaten at any time of day as a snack, but is most commonly consumed in the afternoon with tea.

A key ingredient is lard, long considered a silent killer, but today its bad public image is being questioned. Some doctors say it's healthier to cook with lard than oils like sunflower.

Lard is easy to make. Buy a load of pig fat from a butcher. Cut it into one inch squares, put a quarter of an inch of water in a heavy pan – this stops burning – place the fat in the water and put the pan in a hot oven. After two hours you can pour pure pig fat into a bowl. You can freeze it and it'll keep for a long time.

Lardy Cake is one of the simplest cakes to make. Try this traditional recipe.

Old fashioned lardy cake

Ingredients

450g strong white flour

1 tsp salt

2 x 7g sachets instant yeast

75g oz freshly rendered lard

300ml water

75g butter

225g mixed dried fruit including mixed peel

50g soft brown sugar

extra flour for dusting

Method

Mix together the flour, salt, and yeast in a mixing bowl. Rub in 20g of the lard using your fingertips until there are no pieces of lard visible.

Add three-quarters of the water and hand-mix the flour into the water to form a dough. Add as much of the remaining water as you need to get a dough that is soft and leaves the sides of the bowl clean.

Tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5-10 minutes, or until the dough is smooth. Place in a clean bowl, cover and leave to rise until doubled in size. This depends on the temperature of the room, but should take 1-2 hours.

Tip the dough onto a floured work surface and roll into a rectangle about 20x50cm and about .50 cm thick.

Dot a third of the remaining lard and a third of the butter over the surface of the dough. Scatter over a third of the fruit and a third of the sugar. Fold the top third of the dough down and the bottom third up so that the dough is folded in three and roughly square. Turn the dough a quarter turn. Roll out and repeat the out process twice more, to use up all the lard and fruit.

Line a 23x23cm square loose bottomed tin with baking parchment. Roll out the dough to fit the tin and place it inside. Cover with cling film, or place inside a large plastic bag, and leave to rise for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 425F.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until golden-brown.

During baking, the lard and sugar melt together to make a delicious chewy caramel that solidifies as it cools.

Leave to cool slightly before removing from the tin. Cut into squares and serve warm or cold with butter.

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