How to bake a Cumberland Rum Nicky | Paul Hollywood’s Pies & Puds

[Music] I love exploring Britain's food history and recreating long-lost dishes so when I heard about an old recipe that preserves our Maritime Heritage I was straight on the case [Music] and about the origins of British baking so imagine my surprise when a recipe I've enjoyed many times before turned out to have much more behind it than I knew it's Whitehaven in Cumbria where I hope to explore the origins of this luxurious tart it contains rum dates apricots and goes by the name of Cumberland rum Nikki something that's always confused me is why it's called the Nikki and not a tart or a pie wow absolutely superb what a view Ann cook has been studying whitehaven's local history for years this actually was the second biggest port in England the second biggest port in England that was the second biggest absolutely I mean I've had bathtubs bigger than that I mean welcome to Liverpool I mean Liverpool was obviously just down the road but this at the time this is where all the merchants were in it wasn't a planned Port but it was added onto all the time and extended as the town got bigger and you can see we've got four or five lighthouses and you know they were added on and then another arm came out in another Lighthouse and things like that looking at it now it's hard to imagine that in the 1800s Whitehaven was a cargo capital of England the destination for the tall ships sailing from the Caribbean they were filled with ingredients that fed Britain's growing taste for exotic fruits and spices amazingly the Whitehaven Town archives contain ships records from those times this is um an infantry of what was brought in now this is in 1861. they're bringing in Sugar tick they're picking in rum obviously because these guys are rum Traders but they're also bringing in preserves now that's the killer blow for me now that would have been apricots that would have been your date the family would have had the flower well they're all the key ingredients for making a rum Nikki so the 18th century merchants of the Caribbean were importing the room and fruits needed for the Cumberland rum Nikki but they must have been exotic and expensive Jeffersons were one of the main shipping companies at the time and their original offices are still here in Whitehaven preserved as a museum the museum manager is Phil Hazelhurst this is the heart of The Jeffersons Empire from here they're on a worldwide business how did it all start for them originally back in the early 1700s they were doing wine spirits champagne and various other things but what they wanted to do after 1780 when Henry took over from his father he bought this place and he wanted to get into rum and sugar do you know when they came back to Whitehaven with the rum and the sugar and I noticed they also had things like um preserves you can ask if they had two things yeah some key things their importance one of them's dates and the other one is apricots well certainly dates because without dates you couldn't have some of the dishes that are so known with Cumbria today the Cumberland rum Nikki which alleged to have come from here alleged of course it came from here where else is it going to come from this was the premier Harbor this was the M1 to the to the to the destination this was a Nexus that meant that Cumberland rumnicki was basically just it had to be made here there was nowhere else on the planet it could have been made for The Jeffersons their imported goods made them wealthy and prosperous but for the everyday people at Whitehaven things were far less Rosy I know that the sailors didn't get paid a lot of money the overall conditions of them living in Whitehaven must have been quite scholar we're talking about houses stacked one on top of the other two rooms 12 14 people in there no water no sanitary facilities that would have been absolutely no way of not being able for disease to spread I mean she probably wanted to go on a ship and see the world and get some fresh air in your lungs really the story is the the set the family of the sailors were actually producing the the tarp for them for their return return Journey the point is how did it get from the ship to the houses well I think Sailors are sometimes being famous for having large hands and I mean you've got to remember the title of the pudding you were talking about there it was because it was nicked so you have Cumberland rum Nikki so that's why it's called the Nikki it seems that a bit of pilfering piracy went on as the sailors nicked these exotic and pretty expensive ingredients and took them home to their excited families but to try and prevent all his pilfering these were built the bond sellers I can't see them taking it from here it's too difficult once it comes into here it's Fort Knox it's been signed in it has to be signed out by the tax man it had to be polined while it's still on the ship or in transit to here so basically it was nicked from the ship coming up to here someone's probably been paid off and said I'll just dropped one off there mate there you go for his buddy it dropped off the back of a Dray well that's it the unique story behind whitehaven's Cumberland rum Nikki the locals must be dead proud of it hello hello Cumberland rum Nikki do you know what it is you know what it is have you ever heard of one night you've never heard of them where's the nearest place do you think I'll find one I bet he's got them at last someone is making whitehaven's pudding oh great this is the places that could have the Cumberland Road Nikki all over the place trying to find somebody we find somebody tell us where it is what happens it's closed brilliant to be honest it probably is too far back in time to really say for certain exactly how a tart like this was created but I don't care if it's a myth or not it's a great story it's a tart that's been made using the contents of an 18th century ship to celebrate the return of the sailors that have been away at Sea I for one I'm looking forward to making one I had an exhausting day up in Whitehaven and it's good to see you again Phil I am I'm glad to see you brought some of that room with you well we didn't think we'd had enough last time well no we haven't there's a glass Could you um I'll have a little bit please just be honest yeah an honest drop what surprised me when I when I started talking to the people was the amount of people that didn't know what a Cumberland rum Nikki actually was it is a it is that endangered pie it's a little bit Brown looking it's very very rich and people probably think it's not very healthy for them but you don't need a huge amount to get a really good boost of flavor I've got a little job for you there's a pair of scissors there and there's some dates can you just basically what I want you to do is just cut little pieces off like that and just put them in there for me and when you've done it just add a little bit of that rum just a little capful and just give it a little bit of a stir for me now what I'm going to show you is the dish that we've been trying to find out all about in Whitehaven and it's the Cumberland rum Nikki for all you people out there in Whitehaven that I spoke to and I asked you what's a Cumberland on Nikki what I'm about to show you you need to rejuvenate this in your area now to start with I've got some butter which I'm going to put straight into the bowl and then just beat this just soften it up a little bit which is perfect just room temperature is fine then I'm going to add some dark muscovado sugar mix this together I'm a decent Baker and rather than Nick my preserved fruit off a ship I bought it from a shop but these chopped apricots and this crystallized ginger they are pretty much what the tool ships brought to Whitehaven are you getting on oh you beautiful more than that um I'm hoping that that's Grand that is okay we'll just throw that in there as well and then you mix all these ingredients together I'm gonna get my hands in there now I love the fact that it was probably called the Nikki because they Nick the stuff that's right yes I thought that was fantastic I was interesting to see that you use the dark sugar in that as well because that'll give you more of that molasses texture to it exactly it's almost that multi-flavor that I want to see sort of riding through it and then the ginger sort of hitching goes bang and then the rum just goes because you're going to get this wave it would make a perfect Christmas dish because it's warming as well as luxurious absolutely yeah now I obviously need to prepare the pastry for this so a basic sweet pastry is three two one okay three flour two butter one sugar that's generally how you make a pastry and then you may add an egg or a little bit of water so I need a little bit of flour so I'm just going to roll out the pastry I want it to be quite thin because I want that pastry to be quite crispy when I break through so lift up your pastry Chuck it on the plate and then take it all the way down just tuck it in so you don't get too much spring back because it's on a slight Ridge it will shrink back a little bit so once I've done that I'm just going to run a knife around the outside just to trim it off remember doing a surprise years ago my favorite jobs so there we have it one lined plate the filling is going to go in now as well so we take a big scoop full of that now this is one of course that could upset some people because you have a pie and people tend to say oh well you're blind bake or you'll do it off first no not at all the only reason do you know the reason why you blind bake a pie the main reason why you're buying Baker pie well usually if you put in a wet filling or something in it is it all but what does that cause oh not a soggy body oh yes it creates the Soggy Bottom so at this stage because the ingredients are not particularly wet you're going to get away with without getting too much of a Soggy Bottom [Music] save will become the lid but this will be pilot what I'm doing here is just cutting strips off which is gonna is gonna form the the lattice work on the top that's really the most delicate part of the pie when you think about it it probably is I mean to be honest yeah you're probably right so the best way to do it I feel is if you get some paper start placing your strips on there and continue by alternating between horizontal and vertical until you've got a woven effect this is a great technique for any pie allowing you to get a sneaky peek at the filling inside why do we have a lattice top on some pies the main reason is for decoration it's purely decorative once you've done that you end up with a basic a basic lattice work on if you put a bit of pressure down the outside to try and seal it together and then what you want to try and do is basically this is a tricky bit is flip it onto the top of the pie so you grab it flip it over oh that deserves a round of applause and then you neaten it all off so you take a bit of time just straighten it all off and then pinch around the edge where it overlaps just to force it down again you trim it around the outside so you go from that which you bake in an oven for about 25 minutes at 200 degrees C and you end up with this there you have your Cumberland rum Nikki I'm not sure how they served it in the 19th century but I'd suggest you serve it warmed with a little rum butter on the side Whitehaven I hope you're watching looking forward to that Phil you'll have to wait a little bit longer to try [Music]

Channel: Paul Hollywood

Views: 7,151

Keywords: Paul Hollywood, Baking, Bake off, Bake-off, channel 4, cakes, bread, baking bread, Paul Hollywood eats japan, Paul Hollywood's City Bakes, cooking, food

Id: gkm8O0HV_Ds

Length: 13min 18sec (798 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 27 2023