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Treacle tart without breadcrumbs9/13/2023 ![]() ![]() The pastry is a straight-forward shortcrust. If you like the blogs and podcast I produce, please consider treating me to a virtual coffee or pint, or even a £3 monthly subscription: follow this link for more information.Ĥ oz salted butter or 2 oz each butter and lard cut into cubes and chilled Be warned – if you go for some seconds, you may fall into some kind of sugar-induced diabetic coma… This tart makes enough for ten people I would say. There’s a pound and a half of golden syrup in this tart so the sweetness really needs cutting with some lemon juice and zest, and if you like, a tablespoon or two of black treacle it’s not just a nod to treacle tarts of the past, its bitterness really does tone down the sweetness. I use brown bread crumbs – it gives a good flavour and increases the chewiness level a little further. I like it (and I have tried several recently) because it has a lot more bread in it than most other recipes – treacle tart should be chewy with a hint of and must hold its shape when cut, many recipes fail in this respect. Here’s the recipe that I use for a treacle tart. Then just to complicate things further, Jane Grigson mentions that the predecessor to the treacle tart is the sweetmeat cake – again a 17 th century invention – that uses candied orange peel, sugar and butter as a filling and no treacle or bread whatsoever!Īll this confusing history waffle is giving me a headache. Heston Blumenthal in his book Total Perfection also mentions a 17 th century ‘tart of bread’ where bread and treacle are mixed with bread, spices and dried fruit and baked in an open pastry shell. Jane Grigson mentions a gingerbread recipe from 1420 in her book English Food where spices and breadcrumbs were mixed together with plenty of honey to make a gingerbread that seems pretty similar a modern treacle tart, but without the pastry. It starts cropping up in recipes for gingerbread in the mid-18 th century. Prior to the 17 th century, treacle was used as a medicine it was considered very good for the blood and was therefore used in antidotes to poisons. The terrifying Childcatcher from Chitty Chitty Bang BangĬoaxing the children with shouts of “treacle tart! All free today!” The other problem is the recipe Mary Jewry gives is nothing like the beloved treacle tart from our childhood. The treacle here is black treacle, and this highlights the problem in researching the origins of this pudding treacle meant any viscous syrup that was a byproduct of sugar refinery and specifics are not always pointed out, even after golden syrup became popular. However, the earliest recipe I have found for a treacle tart actually dates to 1879 – before the invention of golden syrup! The recipe is by Mary Jewry and is a tart made up of alternating layers of pastry and treacle. The pudding itself as we know it has only been in existence since the late nineteenth century since golden syrup was invented in the 1880s. Treacle tart was very popular with poorer families – the two main ingredients being bread and treacle – no expensive fruits and spices here. It is probably the ultimate child’s dessert because it is so unbelievably sweet it makes my teeth hurt just looking at one! That aside, I have never really lost my sweet tooth and I love treacle – meaning golden syrup of course in this case (see here for a post on treacle). Serve warm with double or clotted cream.A classic British nursery pudding, the treacle tart is much-loved. Remove from the oven and cool for 15 minutes. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden and almost set. Stir through the breadcrumbs, egg, lemon zest and juice, mixing well. For the filling, spoon the syrup into a saucepan, add the ginger and gently warm through.Remove the paper and beans/rice and?return to the oven for 5 minutes or until golden. Line the tin with baking paper and baking beans or rice, then blind bake in the oven for 12 minutes. ![]() Preheat a baking sheet in the oven to 200ÁC/fan180ÁC/gas 6. Prick the base all over with a fork and chill in the fridge for a further 30 minutes.
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