Cumberland Rum Nicky is the name given to an old English dish consisting of a tart filled with dates, ginger and flavoured with Rum.
The quarter finals of The Great British Bake Off 2017 was the theme of forgotten bakes but when it come to Cumberland Rum Nicky, which was the technical challenge, I had never heard of it let alone forgotten it!
I could not help but ponder why I had not come across it before, I have many baking books and books on British cookery both old and new but it is not in any of them. The tart looked and sounded delicious, and as I hadn't made it before, I immediately decided I was going to change that.
I set about googling the recipe and there are a not a huge amount of recipes on line but they all had dates, ginger and rum in common. Some added other dried fruits such as sultanas and raisins.
Paul Hollywood's recipe has dried apricots and a couple had apple in them. I used Paul's recipe as a starting point and added apple instead of the dried apricots which seemed less authentic. I made the sweetcrust pastry the way I always do with the addition of an egg yolk for extra richness.
As for its strange name I came across this explanation on Made in Cumbria Website . "This is one of the oldest traditional Cumberland desserts dating back to the East Indies trading routes. During this time Whitehaven was the second biggest port in England, bringing products like ginger, dates, rum, molasses and spices to Britain. The canny Cumbrian seamen were given a bonus by the ship owners of some of the items they were carrying. This led them to invent a date, rum and ginger flan called Rum Nicky. It is assumed that the word nicky derives from the fact that the shortage of ingredients to complete the flan were often ‘nicked’ (stolen) from the ship."
I have to say I really liked this tart. It is similar to a mincemeat tart but not as sweet and would make a delicious alternative, I can see myself making this again at Christmas.
It is often served with rum butter which is made the same way as Brandy butter but with rum not brandy of course. If you like dates and like rum you are going to love this tart.
How to make the tart
Cumberland Rum Nicky
Ingredients
filling
- 250 g dates, chopped
- 1 eating apple, peeled cored and chopped
- 50 g stem ginger about 2 pieces, chopped
- 50 ml rum
- 50 g dark muscovado sugar
- 50 g butter
pastry
- 250 g plain flour
- 25 g icing sugar
- 125 g butter cut into cubes
- 1 egg, seperated
- 2-3 tablespoon cold water
Instructions
- Mix all the ingredients for the filling, except the butter together and set aside while making the pastry.
- Place the flour and icing sugar together in a bowl and rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
- Add the egg yolk and enough cold water to mix to bring the pastry together. Wrap and chill for 15 minutes.
- Roll out two thirds of the pastry and use to line a 20cm/8in flan tin of pie plate. Pile the filing mixture into the pastry case and level the top. Dot with the butter.
- Roll out the remaining pastry and cut into thin strips. Weave into lattice on top of the tart. Alternatively you can create the lattice on a sheet of baking parchment then transfer the lattice to the tart.
- Stick the lattice to the tart with a little beaten egg white then brush the lattice work with beaten egg white to glaze. Chill for 15 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 200℃ (180℃ fan)/400°F/gas mark 6 and bake the tart in the centre of the oven for 15 minutes .
- Reduce the oven temperature to 180℃ (170℃ fan)/400°F/gas mark 4 and bake for a further 15-20 minutes. Serve warm or cold.
jeanne says
we found it delicious, but it turned into a crumbly mess for serving!
nothing stuck together. the filling was quite scant (as i found in all the recipes of this dessert that i looked at. so i did a 1- 1/2 size and i think i could have doubled it for a standard tart pan.
next time i may try cooking the filling a bit to "gel" it, and/or adding an egg.
the topping however "made" the dish, and i can use that recipe for apple crisp or apple pie which we often enjoy in fall.
Jacqueline Bellefontaine says
Glad you found it delicious. I agree;) I'm surprised you found the filling a bit scant >did you use a 20cm 8in tin? The pastry is a light short pastry so it is likely that the increased amount of filling was too heavy for the pastry case thus causing it to all apart.
Peter White says
I think your recipe is LESS authentic than P Hollywoods' in that fresh eating apples wouldn't have been unloaded from ships arriving at Whitehaven from exotic places, and preserved or dried fruit & spices were more likely used.. Also the reason a previous commenter had the pastry base fall apart - so much juice in a fresh eating apple, dried would have been better, or else blind baking the base before filling.
Jacqueline Bellefontaine says
I'm not sure dried apricots were imported back then which is why I felt they were not quite right but I'm am sure dried fruit would have been expensive so qite likely to be bulked out with home grown fresh fruit such as apple. Although I can not claim to know for sure.
If you read the previous commenters post carefully you will realise that she was commenting on the fact that the recipe she used was too wet not mine (she too was baking recipes along the bake off theme). I found the recipe worked perfectly. As a fully trained home economist, I have been developing and writing recipes for over 30 years. all my recipes are double-tested before publishing to make sure they work.
Angela / Only Crumbs Remain says
Isn't it just a scrummy bake Jacqui, i'm so glad we trried it too - it seems such a shame that that it's forgotten (and as you say we'd never heard of it let alone forgotten it) . It actually reminds me of a slightly posher version of a date slice that Mum used to make, and we all loved that!
Angela xx
Jacqueline Bellefontaine says
I'm certainly pleased to have found it.
jenny Paulin says
yet another glorious bake from you Jacqueline. The filling in the recipe I used was too wet so my base, while not exactly soggy, fell apart! Your pie on the other hand looks delicious and the filing less. I thought that had I tried it with rum and stem ginger, it would remind me of a mincemeat tart at Christmas. how wonderful that this previously forgotten bake has been given a new lease of life
thank you for baking along again #GBBOBloggers2017 xx
Jacqueline Bellefontaine says
Yes I was really pleased to try something I haven't made before
Helen says
that looks delicious, and would be great at christmas, and your pastry is so neat and tidy!
Jacqueline Bellefontaine says
Thank you. I will certainly be making it again at Christmas it lends itself so well and will make a change.