treacle and vanilla salt tart
I have some shortcrust pastry in my freezer, leftover from other baking projects. As I don't like to waste food I've been looking at tart recipes both online and in my recipe books. Many of the recipes I found seemed to be riffs on the classic British treacle tart. As I've never had treacle tart before I thought I better make one first.
There are so many treacle tart recipes out there but I liked the sound of Heston Blumenthal's recipe. The recipe wasn't very clearly written though and made a huge tart. I've made a few Michael James recipes in the past and they're pretty reliable so when I discovered this Michael James recipe, which looked similar to Heston's, that's the recipe I decided to use.
I used my leftover pastry but I've linked to the original recipe if you'd like to make Michael's pastry recipe. You'll need to start this recipe the day before serving as the filling gets an overnight sleep. The vanilla salt and the pastry can be made ahead of time and the tart case can be pre-baked.
Here's the recipe for you which makes an 18-cm tart. For a larger tart please refer to the linked recipe. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C.
Treacle and vanilla salt tart - makes an 18-cm tart
Almond shortcrust pastry
45g icing sugar
25g almond meal
200g plain flour
pinch salt
110g cold unsalted butter, diced
1 egg
cold water, if needed
Treacle filling
1 egg
20g thick cream
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
227g golden syrup
45g unsalted butter
45g sourdough breadcrumbs
3 tsp lemon rind
35mls lemon juice
Vanilla salt
½ vanilla pod, seeds scraped
1 tsp sea salt
To serve
clotted cream or crème fraîche,
Shortcrust pastry
Combine all the dry ingredients in a food processor, and whiz for a few seconds until well combined and free of lumps. Add the cold butter and whiz until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg and sufficient cold water and whiz until a soft dough just starts to form around the blade. Remove the dough from the food processor and gather the pastry into a ball; flatten slightly before wrapping in plastic and placing in the fridge.
You’ll only need about half of the pastry dough to make an 18-cm tart. The pastry freezes well so just wrap the remaining pastry in plastic wrap and store in the freezer.
Treacle filling
Whisk together the egg, cream and salt in a large mixing bowl and set aside.
Brown the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Once melted, leave it until it starts to brown – you will know it’s ready when it stops spitting and bubbling, and produces a wonderful nutty aroma. This means the water has evaporated and it’s close to burning. Strain through a fine sieve to remove the solids, and weigh 30g into a medium sized bowl.
Add the golden syrup to the butter and mix to combine. Stir this into the egg mixture, then add the breadcrumbs, followed by the lemon zest and juice, stirring well between each addition. Chill the mixture in the fridge overnight to allow the breadcrumbs to absorb all the liquid.
Day of baking
On a lightly floured bench, roll the pastry out into a large disc, 4mm thick. Lightly grease a 18-cm round tart tin with butter, and gently lay the pastry over it. Press the pastry firmly into the base of the tin. Trim the excess with a knife, then place the tart shell in the fridge to rest for an hour. Retain the excess pastry to patch the tart should cracks form as it bakes.
Preheat the oven to 160°C, fan forced/180°C, conventional. Line the rested pastry case with baking paper or foil and fill with dried beans, rice or baking weights. Bake for 25 minutes, then remove the paper and beans and bake the tart shell for a further 10 minutes, until lightly golden. Set aside to cool in the tin and patch any cracks that have formed with some of the excess pastry.
Vanilla salt
Rub the vanilla seeds and sea salt together. You will have more than you need, but it keeps for ages in a small jar, so you can save it for later.
Assembly
Preheat the oven to 155°C, fan forced/175°C, conventional. Take the breadcrumb mix out of the fridge. It will have separated slightly, so mix it with a spoon until it comes back together then pour it into a jug.
Place the tart shell on a flat tray lined with baking paper. Place the tray in the oven, then gently pour in the treacle mixture. Fill the pastry case to just below the rim, as it will expand a bit in the oven. Bake for 45–50 minutes, until just set. The filling should be just firm on the edges and have a bit of wobble in the centre, like a jelly.
Place the tart on a wire rack to cool, then remove the tart from the tin and transfer to a serving dish. Sprinkle the top with the vanilla salt, and serve with a dollop of clotted cream or crème fraîche, if desired.
I was expecting a somewhat bland tart so I was surprised by the intensity of the lemon flavour. Next time I'd use less lemon rind and perhaps a little less juice. The filling is quite sweet so I think the cream or crème fraîche toppings are necessary, not optional extras. Now I can't wait to make the other tarts.
See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.
Bye for now,
Jillian
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