Treacle tart

From Ars Cookbook

Submitted by BajanDude

This calls upon the Shortcrust Pastry recipe first, as you will need a batch of pastry to act as the shell for the breadcrumbs and treacle. There are two variations on the directions, depending on the style of treacle tart you want to make.

Contents 1 Ingredients 2 Utensils 3 Directions (base) 4 Directions (style 1) 5 Directions (style 2) 6 Notes

Ingredients

• Half a semi-stale baguette, or any other white bread
• Tate & Lyle Golden Syrup (you could try real treacle or molasses, but I doubt they're light enough - don't try with Aunt Jemima)

Utensils

• Swiss roll tray, or baking sheets with a ~1 cm lip, or any other tin with a flat base and raised lip
• Rolling pin
• Knife
• Grater

Directions (base)

1. Set your oven to preheat to gas mark 6 (conversions to C and F needed).
2. Grate the bread into a bowl. If you have more than you need afterwards, stuff them in a ziploc or similar and store for other recipes.
3. Guesstimate the amount of pastry you need to line the pan and roll it out. The pastry should be fairly thin (a few mm, no thinner).
4. Grease the pan lightly if it is not non-stick.
5. Line the pan with the pastry, and gently press the pastry against the surfaces so it holds. This pastry will shrink slightly when baked, so you may need a little more height than you think.
6. Jump to style 1 or style 2 to fill the pan.
7. Place the pan in the oven.
8. Bake for 10 - 15 minutes.
9. Remove and let cool. Eat hot if you want to burn your tongue.

Directions (style 1)

1. In a flat pan, sprinkle enough breadcrumbs to lightly mask the underlying pastry.
2. Spoon a gentle covering of golden syrup over the breadcrumbs. Be warned that it picks up the breadcrumbs if you do it wrong. You'll need to guess how much you want, as some people like a lot of syrup, others like just enough to create a thin layer. It will spread out as it cooks.

Directions (style 2)

1. Warm the golden syrup up slightly in a saucepan to make it more runny.
2. In a mixing bowl, blend the breadcrumbs and warmed syrup - it'll be quite stiff.
3. Spoon the mixture into a round pan (you can try this with a flat pan, but it doesn't work as well) and tamp down.

Notes

Classic recipes call for lemon and ginger to be added in small amounts. Personally, I don't like that flavour in my treacle tart.