Recently, I tried a treacle tart recipe I found in a magazine and it was awful! This got me thinking that it had been years since I had made a treacle tart. Wanting to make a recipe that was noteworthy, it took me three attempts before I was happy. Of course, I had to bravely eat the lesser ones. It does take a little more effort, but the taste will be well worth it.

I used a 9¹/2in flan tin with a removable bottom like this one

Toffee Sauce
50g (2oz) granulated sugar
Few drops of vanilla essence
25g (1oz) butter
125ml double cream

1. Heat the sugar in a non-stick saucepan until it starts to brown at the edges.
2. Move the sugar around without stirring and when it is all melted and lightly brown, remove it from the heat and slowly add the cream, then the vanilla and butter.
3. Return to the heat for a few minutes until the ingredients are all mixed, stirring once or twice, then allow to cool.

Treacle Tart
250g (10 oz) sweet/short pastry
200g (8 oz) golden syrup
1 Tbsp black treacle
3Tbsp toffee sauce
juice 1/2 lemon
1 large egg yolk
150g (6oz) white bread (without crusts)

1. Roll out your pastry about 3mm thick and lay into your (buttered) flan tin, place in the fridge and rest for 30 minutes.
2. Grind up your bread in a food processor until it is very finely crumbed.
3. Add the lemon juice, then the treacle, syrup, toffee sauce and egg yolk.
4. Preheat oven to 190 C gas mark 4.
5. Pour the cool mix into the rested pastry case and bake on the middle shelf for 20-30 minutes.
6. Allow to cool for 20 minutes before removing the tart from the flan tin and cutting.

Plum and Strawberry Sauce
8 plums, stoned and cut into wedges
150g (6oz) strawberries, chopped
1 tbsp raspberry jam

Often in the summertime, the plums you buy can be hits and miss, often still hard after sitting for days in your fruit bowl.  Here is a great way to use plums to accompany a dessert and can also make a great topping for plain yoghurt !

1. Put the strawberries and jam into a non-stick saucepan and simmer until the strawberries are very soft, then push the mixture through a fine sieve to make the sauce.
2. Return the sauce to a clear non-stick sauce­pan and add the plum wedges. Heat for about 3-4 minutes, then remove from the heat and allow the plum sauce to cool in the pan.

To Serve
Serve a portion of tart with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and the plum and strawberry sauce.

Don’t forget to visit my other blogs
Easy & Cheap Student Recipes-A great resource if you are a student or just learning how to cook.

Old Blog Posts– A growing archive of posts from my original food blog, which had 20,922,573 page views from its beginning in February 2006 until December 2015.

© Kevin Ashton 2006-2016