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Treacle Tart (Golden Syrup and Breadcrumb Tart)

Name: Treacle Tart (Golden Syrup and Breadcrumb Tart)
Prep time: 1 h
Cook time: 55 min
Total time: 1 h 55 min
Yield: 8 servings
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 200 g plain flour; 100 g butter; 1 pinch salt; 3 tbsp cold water; 450 g golden syrup; 120 g fresh white breadcrumbs; 1 lemon; 0.5 tsp ground ginger; clotted cream, custard or ice cream

A British tart: a shortcrust case filled with golden syrup, fresh breadcrumbs and lemon, and baked. There is no egg; the crumbs hold the syrup and it sets as it cools. Served warm with clotted cream, custard or ice cream.

Ingredients

8servings

Shortcrust (23cm tart tin)
plain flour200 g
butter · cold, diced100 g
salt1 pinch
cold water · just enough to bring it together3 tbsp
Filling
golden syrup450 g
fresh white breadcrumbs · from day-old white bread, crusts off120 g
lemon · zest grated, plus 2 tbsp juice1
ground ginger · optional0.5 tsp
To serve
clotted cream, custard or ice cream

Steps

Rub the cold butter into the flour and salt with your fingertips until it looks like sand. Add the water a little at a time until it holds, flatten, wrap and chill 30 minutes.
⏲ 30 min
Roll out 3mm thick, line the tin and trim the edge, keeping the scraps. Prick the base and chill 15 minutes more.
⏲ 15 min
Heat the oven to 200°C. Line with paper and baking beans, bake 15 minutes, remove the beans and bake 5 more. Turn the oven down to 180°C.
⏲ 20 min
Warm the golden syrup in a pan over low heat just until it runs freely. Do not boil it.
⏲ 2 min
Off the heat, stir in the breadcrumbs, lemon zest and juice and the ginger, and leave 5 minutes. The crumbs take up the syrup and swell.
⏲ 5 min
Pour into the baked case and level it. A lattice from the scraps is optional. Bake at 180°C for 30-35 minutes, until the edge is set and the middle still wobbles slightly.
⏲ 35 min
Cool in the tin for at least 30 minutes before cutting. Serve warm with clotted cream or custard.
⏲ 30 min

Variations

With black treacle. Swap 50g of the golden syrup for black treacle for a darker, slightly bitter filling, as in the photograph.
Softer filling. One egg and 3 tbsp cream beaten into the filling make it closer to a custard.
Lattice top. Strips cut from the pastry scraps and laid in a lattice are the usual look.
With oats. Some of the breadcrumbs replaced by rolled oats for more chew.

Tips

Use fresh breadcrumbs. Dried crumbs take up too much syrup and make the filling stodgy.
Warm the syrup, do not boil it. Boiled down, it sets hard once cool.
Take it out while the middle still wobbles. It firms as it cools.
Do not cut it hot. The filling runs.
The lemon is there for the taste. The filling is almost all sugar, and without acid the sweetness never stops. The juice and zest give it an end (balancing flavour).

More detail and the reasons why (1)

The breadcrumbs are what sets this filling. There is no egg and no starch paste, only syrup, crumbs and lemon. Bread that has already been baked takes up the syrup and holds it in place, and the syrup, which loses a little water in the oven, thickens as it cools until the filling slices. Apfelstrudel puts down a layer of breadcrumbs to catch the juice from its apples; here the crumbs catch the sugar itself. Golden syrup does not crystallise, so the filling does not turn grainy as it cools, which is the same reason stroopwafel uses it (what sugar does).