Traditional Scottish Recipes
- Fruit Slice / Fly CemeteryThe posh name for this delicious concoction is "Fruit Slice" but it is often called "Fly Cemetery" as the filling of raisins and currants does look a bit like a collection of dead flies! Despite that nickname, it is an extremely popular savoury sold by most bakery shops in Scotland. There are variations on how this fruit slice is made - some people use puff pastry instead of shortcrust pastry. Note that the word "raisin" is usually reserved for the dark-coloured dried large grape, and "currant" is a dried small Black Corinth grape (with "sultana" outside the US being a golden-coloured dried grape)
If you really want to push the boat out and add to the calories, some people put icing on top - using 4 cups powdered/icing sugar and cold water. Alternatively, sprinkle sugar over the brushed-on milk before going into oven or sprinkle powdered sugar over the top once it is out of oven and cooled.
The ingredients below should be enough to cover a 9 x 6 baking tray, providing 20 squares.
Ingredients:Return to the Index of Traditional Scottish Recipes
Fruit filling
Raisins - 2 cups (300g / 10 ounces)
and currants -1 cup (150g / 5 ounces) currants (if you can't obtain currants use 3 cups /450g 15g raisins in total)
Sugar - 1 cup / 200g / 7 ounces
Water - 1 cup /200g /7 ounces
Cornflour/Cornstarch - 1 tablespoon
All Spice - 1 teasspoon
For the Shortcrust Pastry
Self Raising Flour - 14oz (3½ cups / 350g)
Butter - 6oz (185g 1.5 sticks)Cold water
Method:
Place all the fruit filling ingredients into a large pot and boil continuously for 3 minutes, stirring all the time until the mixture thickens and reduces. Leave aside to cool.
Now make your shortcrust pastry. This needs to be light and full of air and handled as little as possible. Sieve the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl getting plenty of air in there. Rub all the Butter into the Flour until it resembles breadcrumbs. Using blunt knives to work it in to reduces handling.
Add some cold water, a little at a time, sprinkling over the mixture and kneading until you get a soft dough. Don't over-knead as you will lose the air.
Cut the mixture in two equal portions and roll out the two halves over a floured surface. Lay out one of the rolled pastry onto a greased 9 x 6 cookie sheet/baking tray, covering it completely. Spread the Fruit Mixture evenly on top, then lay 2nd rolled pastry on top of that. Brush the top with milk and put in a pre-heated oven at 375 F/190C for 20 minutes.
Take out of oven and leave to cool. Once cool, you can make up icing (if you want this) by adding a little water at a time to the icing to make a thick paste, making sure it is stiff. Smooth on top and leave to set
Once set, cut into 20 squares.
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