Traditional Scottish recipe: Ecclefechan tart
Named after a village in Dumfries and Galloway, this wonderful recipe for Ecclefechan Tart comes from top Scottish chef Neil Forbes.
This is a wonderful recipe which I adapted from one given to me by a dear friend of mine, John Webber, who is now teaching at Nick Nairn’s Cook School, but was once the head chef at Kinnaird House in Perthshire.
Ingredients
- 240g soft (almost-melted) butter
- 240g soft dark brown sugar
- 4 eggs beaten
- 1 tsp cinnamon zest and juice of 1 lemon
- 960g California raisins
- 240g walnuts, roughly chopped
Serves: 4 Difficulty: Medium
Method
Ecclefechan tart 1 Prepare a blind-baked sweet pastry 10in tart shell and leave it in the mould. I use bottomless tins.
2 Beat the soft butter and brown sugar together until well combined and creamed. Then trickle the eggs in slowly, a little at a time.
3 Add the cinnamon, lemon juice and zest and mix well. Fold in the raisins and walnuts and give it a good mix.
4 Scoop the mix into the prepared pastry case and smooth out with a wet palette knife.
5 Bake at 160C/Gas Mark 4 for roughly 45 minutes, checking and spreading the mix flat as you go.
6 Allow to cool slightly before cutting into slices and serving with lots of crème fraîche.