Chelsea Pies

This is a recipe from my Good Housekeeping's Book of Recipes and Household Discoveries, copyright 1920. It was my Grandma's and her mother's before that. Don't you love that name? Not just a cookbook but a book of recipes and don't forget the household discoveries! Anyway, back to Chelsea Pies, one of the first recipes I tried from this cookbook and one of my favorites! So yummy! And so simple to make. Yesterday I made two pies and had a lot of leftover pie crust, so I thought of these.

 Filling the little pies.

 Edges pinched and ready.

Gently rolling the tops.

 Ready for the oven.

Delicious!

Chelsea Pies

For each pie you will need:

2 tablespoonful currents or seedless raisins

1 teaspoonful sugar

1/2 teaspoonful butter

pastry dough

Cut rounds about the size of a small saucer from plain pie crust. In the middle of each put the currants or raisins, sugar and butter. Wet edges and gather up like a bag. Pinch the edges together, turn over and roll gently with a rolling pin till the currants begin to prick through on the top side. Bake in a hot oven and serve either warm or cold.

*This is the original wording of the recipe, before they used temperature settings! I usually bake at 400 until nicely brown. I also like to add a pinch of cinnamon to the raisins.

I am a little curious about the history of these little pies. But I can't find anything about them, even when I googled it. Anybody heard of them before? I am assuming from the name they are English.