Treacle Tart

Recipe courtesy of James Martin from Housecall.

Ingredients
Pastry:
225g / 8oz plain flour
110g / 4oz butter, chilled and diced
1 medium egg

Filling:
450g / 1lb golden syrup
85g / 3oz fresh breadcrumbs
generous pinch ground ginger
1 lemon, zest finely grated, plus 2tbsp of the juice

Rub the fat into the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Mix in the egg with a knife, and knead to a smooth dough.
Use the dough to line a 9" loose-bottomed tart tin, prick with a fork and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 190C.
Bake the pastry blind for 10-15 minutes until light golden brown.
Mix together the filling ingredients and pour into the pastry case. Bake for about 30 minutes. Serve hot or cold.


And now for my adjustments....

I used a large egg in the pastry mixture and it was still quite difficult to get it all to bind together well. One recipe I found said to add a little water to the mix if it was being difficult.
I used two 5" foil cases for my tarts, and the pastry mix was more than enough for them.
There was slightly too much filling for the two cases though.

Apart from that, I followed the recipe exactly, and they turned out really well!!

Next time....

I am going to make the breadcrumb to syrup ratio slightly less syrupy, and use black treacle as well as golden syrup - I'll probably use just less than 400g total syrupyness.

I think that's the only thing I'm going to change for next time!

Edit
I made two tarts for Steve, using most of a 900g tin of golden syrup and what was left in my black treacle tin which might have been about 50g. It came to just over 800g all in, there's still a good amount of syrup left in the big tin. Breadcrumbs - used 8 slices thick sliced warburtons, crusts removed. Grated rind of 2 lemons, plus 4 tablespoons of the juice, and a generous amount of ground ginger. Have to admit I cheated though and used 2 ready made shortcrust pastry bases! Tarts were REALLY well received, the black treacle is definitely a "secret ingredient" to be shared and the lemon is extremely necessary.

And they are even better with double cream.