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Is it a chorley cake? Singing Lily? An Eccles Cake? A currant cake? Whatever they are, these traditional mini hand pies are adorable. Based on a recipe from my British Great Grandmother- simply fold extra pie crust around a heaping spoonful of currants and sugar. Perfect for those leftover Thanksgiving and Christmas pie crust scraps!
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5 from 1 vote

AMERICAN SINGING LILY

Is it a Chorley cake? Singing Lily? An Eccles Cake? A currant cake? Whatever they are, these traditional mini hand pies are adorable. Based on a recipe from my British Great Grandmother- simply fold extra pie crust around a heaping spoonful of currants and sugar. Perfect for those leftover Thanksgiving and Christmas pie crust scraps!
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time15 minutes
Total Time30 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: chorley cakes, currant pie, eccles cakes
Servings: 10 hand pies
Calories: 197kcal
Author: Mrs Major Hoff

Ingredients

For the Pie Crust:

  • 8 tablespoon chilled unsalted butter (This is usually one stick)
  • 1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 3-4 tablespoon ice cold water

For the cakes:

  • 1 cup dried currants
  • 4 tablespoon salted butter
  • 3 Tablespoons sugar

Instructions

For the Pie Crust

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  • In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar and salt.
  • Add in the pieces of butter and “cut it in” using either a pastry cutter or 2 knives.
  • The butter will break down in size, and your mixture will start to resemble coarse meal. Let the butter go down in size, until just under pea size.
  • Slowly add in the ice cold water, a tablespoon at a time. Stir with a wooden spoon. Eventually start needing by hand, and the flour will form a dough. Try not to overwork it. Bring to a ball and flatten down a bit. You are now ready to go!
  • This dough makes enough for 1 crust. You do not have to chill it, you can use right away!

For the Mini Hand Pies:

  • Cut the dough into 6 even sections. Roll out each section and cut into a circle (see method above).
  • Use the scraps from the first 6 to finish out the last 3 or 4.
  • Place circles on a greased cookie sheet. Place a handful of currants in the center. Add a few dabs of small slivers of butter onto the currants. Sprinkle with sugar.
  • Fold as described above.
  • Brush tops with melted butter or cream, and sprinkle sugar on top.
  • Bake for about 15 minutes. The bottoms will brown up.
  • Enjoy!

Nutrition

Calories: 197kcal | Carbohydrates: 16g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Cholesterol: 36mg | Sodium: 180mg | Potassium: 16mg | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 425IU | Calcium: 6mg | Iron: 0.7mg