Yorkshire Mint Pastry: This is a recipe from Yorkshire that tends to get passed down through families, rather than written in cookery books. It is a combination of garden mint with currants (or raisins) in a plain shortcrust pastry tart that offers a taste surprise. This recipe is a personal favourite.
The blend works surprisingly well – and the smell of fresh mint and fruit hot from the oven is sublime.
The main ingredients are stock items in most households: shortcrust pastry, garden mint (spearmint, or any other strong tasting mint works best), and currants (or raisins) – so why not give it a go?
Ingredients
- shortcrust pastry to fit your flat baking dish, top and bottom layers
- Around 8 oz (200-225g) of currants (alternatively, raisins – although I think currants work better in this!)
- Good handful (around 10g) of garden mint, (spearmint is a good one to use)
- Tablespoon white sugar (optional)
Method
- Prepare the shortcrust pastry (or buy it ready made), and divide it approx. 60/40. Roll out the larger piece and place on a round baking tin.
- Mix the currants (or raisins) and mint together in a food blender or masher; add two tablespoons of water to blend it to a soft mash (However, see Jennifer Rogerson’s comments, below).
- Add sugar if you have a sweet tooth, but the dried fruit provides natural sweetness.
- Spread the mint and currant/raisin mixture evenly across the pastry, leaving a small gap around the edges.
- Roll out the second half of the pastry and place across the top of the other, sealing in the currant mixture. Trim off excess pastry.
- Glaze the pastry with beaten egg, or with cream, milk or yoghurt. Make a small hole in the pastry to let out steam.
- Bake in a moderately hot oven (around 190C or 375F) until the pastry is obviously cooked and golden, around 30 minutes.
You can also easily turn these into bite-size Mint & Currant cakes – great for picnics.
16 Responses to Yorkshire Mint Pastry
Very interesting! My grandma used to make this and I loved it. The currants were left whole – I don’t think anyone had food blenders at that time. I’d forgotten about it but I’m certainly going to make one now, especially as there’s lots of fresh mint in the garden!
My grandma born in about 1885 called in Mint and Currant pasty. My wife still makes it (I know I shoud try). It’s my absolute favourite pastry concoction and surely it must be good for you with all that fresh herb and fruit.
My Mum and her Mum before her, and no doubt going back even further, made this regularly and we all loved it.
Mint was the only thing which grew in a pot sink in our yard! The only difference to this recipe was that Mum brushed the bottom pastry sheet with melted butter before strewing the currants. I still do. No extra sugar either as there was none after the war when I was growing up.
My Grandma and then my mum used to make this and we loved it. I had forgotten all about it but have lots of mint in the garden and a memory of it just came back to me! I came on a search for a recipe and plan to make this at the weekend. A touch of nostalgia?
This beautifully simple and delicious pastry is one of my own personal favourites. It is a very old recipe too, going back at least to the early 19th century, and probably much earlier. Dried fruit would have bee a staple in many Yorkshire kitchens, and mint would be just outside the back door. So it is a tribute to the instincts of the first cook who came up with this combination of mint and dried fruit, as it is not an obvious blend of ingredients. But it works so well!
Thank you Colin I’ve made this twice now since your Facebook pointed me here, and love it. 50g butter makes it rich, and blending half the currants before mixing with the rest holds it together. I sprinkle the sugar on top of the glaze rather than put it in the mixture. I also made it as individual pies. Delicious and as you say, who would have thunk it? I have a ‘flavour thesaurus’ that doesnt have dried fruit in it, but it does suggest mint and figs. Why would dried fruit have been a staple if grapes didn’t grow in Britain, was it really available to most families?
Thanks for this Ludi. Dried fruit in English recipe books first appeared in the 16th century, and Mrs Beeton was using dried fruit in her recipes from 1860 onward. I’m not sure to what extent or at all families in low paid working class households could afford them though, as Mrs B was talking to a largely middle class readership. It’s possible ripe white currants would work with this, which could be grown in back gardens. I’ll try and see, as I grow white currants and I suspect their taste would blend quite well with mint, perhaps with addition of sugar.
I used to gather bags and bags of bilberries when I was a child in the 50’s. These grew in profusion at my Auntie’s Harden farm and on various Yorkshire moors. While my parents were watching the ‘Scrambling’ motorbike racing over rough terrain, I would sit amongst the low-growing fruit picking and eating quite a few. These bilberries were turned into many thing by my industrious mother and dried to go into a pasty similar to the one above with fresh mint or orange zest. Mainly though it was currants which I had to pick over, removing stalks and other detritus before they were washed.
Thanks for that, Lydia. I have never tried it with bilberries, but I would imagine it works well, as the basic mint pastry recipe can be applied to sweetened blackcurrants quite successfully, too.
@ Lynda, Fly Flats near Oxenhope – where the scrambling motorbikes were. Lots of families from Halifax and the surrounding areas would go up in billberry season and pick bilberries en mass – faster that way. And make sure to avoid the bikes!
My Nanna and my Mother used to make this. I’ve made a variation; instrad of moistening with a spoon of water I use a spoon of sherry 🙂 My Father called it Fly Pie.
My dear Grandma Peggy used to make this. I loved it as a child and had forgotten about it, but having currants leftover from making Simnel cake, it suddenly came back to me. I searched for it and found this site. Lovely to know it’s still a ‘thing’!
(Also we used to pick bilberries up at Heptonstall and swim in the river afterwards)
Swimming in the river these days perhaps not the option it was then, but the bilberries are still there waiting to be picked. Thanks for the memory, Zoe.
I found this recipe whilst looking for recipes for Yorkshire Day. I’d almost forgotten about it but it was often made by my Aunts in the 60’s.
Another “odd” family favourite were Yorshire Puddings with currants in. They were served before the main meal with gravy. I thought we were just weird but after a bit of research I found that it was a Mrs Beaton recipe. Get the fat smoking hot, pour batter into a bun tray, add a two finger/thumb pinch of currants. If it was being served with that day’s roast, I always had it with apple sauce. We fad this every week for Sunday dinner.
My mum was from Halifax and regularly made current and mint tart ie without the pastry topping. A family favourite at weekend
I’d never heard of this before today but my mum (nearly 80) was reminiscing about Whitsun weekend when she was a child, visiting family in Yorkshire. Her aunt used to cook this for part of the celebrations.
I used your recipe to make it and she said it took her right back. So nice to have access to the recipe to be able able to share this with her.