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Banbury Tarts
1 cup raisins 1 egg 1 cup sugar 1 cracker Juice and grated rind 1 lemon Stone and chop raisins, add sugar, egg slightly beaten, cracker finely rolled, and lemon juice and rind. Roll pastry one-eighth inch thick, and cut pieces three and one-half inches long by three inches wide. Put two teaspoons of mixture on each piece. Moisten edge with cold water half-way round, fold over, press edges together with three-tined fork, first dipped in flour. Bake twenty minutes in slow oven.
A small folded turnover with a sweet raisin-and-lemon filling, thickened with cracker crumbs. The original assumes you already have pastry made and rolled, and gives no yield.
- Pastry quantityNone is specified; the recipe assumes paste already made. A plain two-crust paste (roughly 2 cups flour) is a reasonable starting point, though the filling as written will likely outrun it.
- Slow ovenA slow oven is about 300F. At that heat twenty minutes will set the filling but leave the pastry pale and slack; 375F for 20-25 minutes gives the browning modern cooks expect from a turnover.
- The crackerA plain soda or water cracker, rolled fine; one cracker gives only a small quantity of crumbs. It appears to act as the binder for the filling, so do not omit it.
- Stoning raisinsRaisins of the period commonly still carried seeds, hence the instruction to stone them. Seedless raisins need only chopping.
- LemonGrate the zest before juicing, and use the whole of both. The acid is the only thing standing between a cup of raisins plus a cup of sugar and cloying sweetness.
- SealingMoisten only half the edge, as directed, then fold and crimp with a floured fork. An overfilled tart will split; two level teaspoons per piece is the right load.