Treacle Slice

Treacle tart is a traditional English dessert which is made using short crust pastry, with a filling made with golden syrup (also know as light treacle), a little lemon and breadcrumbs.  This recipe is simple and straight forward and will produce impressive results, especially with a scoop of clotted cream placed on top.

Ingredients for the base:

200g plain flour

50g soft unsalted butter

50g vegetable shorting

15ml lemon juice

2 tablespoons of iced water

Preheat the oven to 180˚ C and line a baking tin with foil and grease it. Put the flour, butter and vegetable shorting into a food processor and blitz until you have a crumbly texture. Pour the lemon juice and iced water down the funnel while the food processor engine is still running until the mixture clumps together, making a pale, damp dough. Press the dough into the bottom of the baking tin, using the back of a metal spoon until you have created an even smooth surface. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

Ingredients for the topping:

454g golden syrup

25g soft unsalted butter

150g breadcrumbs

 Zest from one lemon

1 beaten egg

While the short crust base is in the oven melt the golden syrup and the 25g of butter in a heavy-based saucepan on a low heat. Then stir in the breadcrumbs, don’t worry if the mixture becomes thick, sawdusty and sticky. Take the pan off the heat and allow to cool a little. Then add the lemon zest and beat in the egg. Pour the mixture over the cooked pastry base and put back into the oven for another 20minutes.

When ready the filling should have risen slightly and look as if its just about set, browned at the edges and sticky in the centre. Take out the oven and allow to cool for about 2 minutes. Slice and serve while still slightly warm with a scoop of clotted cream on top.