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Treacle Tarts
Line a tin plate with a plain paste, put on a good allowance of treacle, and add as many bread-crumbs as will make it of a jam-like consistency. A tea-spoonful of ground ginger, or half as much nutmeg or mixed spice may be used to flavour a pound of treacle, and a grate or two of lemon-peel or a tea-spoonful of lemon-juice may be added. The tart may be covered with another layer of paste, and the edge crimped, or some bars and leaves may be cut from the paste, and put on to nearly cover the surface. Bake in a moderate oven until the paste is browned. Probable cost, 1d. each.
A frugal pantry tart that survives almost unchanged as the modern treacle tart. Two things decide the result: which treacle you use, and how many crumbs go in.
- Which treacleIn this period "treacle" usually meant dark treacle or molasses, which gives a near-black, bitter-edged filling. The pale, buttery tart most people expect today is made with golden syrup, or a mix of golden syrup with a spoonful of black treacle for depth. Either works; they taste very different.
- A pound of treacleRoughly 1 1/3 to 1 1/2 cups by volume, about 450 g. That fills one 9-inch tart generously, or two shallow 7-inch ones. Warming the tin or the syrup slightly makes it pour and spread far more easily.
- Bread-crumbsSoft fresh white crumbs, not dried or toasted ones, which drink up too much and turn the filling pasty. Start at about 4 oz (roughly 2 cups loosely packed) per pound of treacle and add until the mixture mounds slowly on the spoon rather than running.
- A tin plateA shallow metal pie plate, an inch deep at most. This is a thin tart, not a deep pie; a deep dish gives you an undercooked, over-sweet centre. Metal is worth keeping to, since it browns the base.
- Moderate oven350F / 180C. Bake 25 to 35 minutes, until the pastry is browned and the filling is set at the edge but still faintly wobbly in the middle. It firms as it cools.
- Plain pasteShortcrust, not puff. A blind-baked base is not called for here, but chilling the lined plate for 20 minutes before filling keeps the sides from slumping under the weight of the syrup.
- The lemonThe optional lemon peel or juice is doing real work against the sweetness. With golden syrup in particular, use the zest of a whole lemon and a good tablespoon of juice per pound rather than the teaspoon suggested.
- Cutting and servingServe barely warm or cold; hot from the oven the filling runs. A 9-inch tart cuts into six to eight small wedges, which is as much as most people want of it.
- Probable costOne penny each, in pre-decimal money, is the point of the recipe rather than a detail of it. This is a dish designed around the cheapest sweet thing in the house and yesterday's loaf.
Treacle tart appears in British cookery in the second half of the nineteenth century. Dark treacle had long been the sugar of the poor, sold by the jar and used in gingerbreads, parkins and puddings; the paler golden syrup that now defines the tart is generally dated to the 1880s. Cassell's places the recipe among its plain, costed dishes with an explicit price attached, which tells you as much as the method does: it is a pudding assembled from pastry, a jar from the shelf and breadcrumbs. The bars and leaves of pastry are the one flourish allowed, and a lattice top is still common on the dish.