So, the other day, Sarah excitedly pulled me aside and said, “KATE! You know those treacle tarts in Harry Potter?” I said I did, and she said, “Did you know they are real, and you can MAKE THEM?!?!” I started laughing and said yes, they’re a very British treat, but that I’d never made them before. She then told our friend Erin about how treacle tarts are real, and Erin nearly lost her mind. Apparently, outside of a fairly select cross-section of people (GBBO watchers, Potter fans, and some bakers), folks around here had no idea that treacle tarts were a thing. Not only that, I discovered, they didn’t realize TREACLE was real. “Oh…I just thought that was the name of the tart,” said another mutual friend.
I looked at Mary Berry’s recipe from GBBO, but decided to keep looking and found a classic recipe at Saveur.com and decided to go with it. Okay, if I’m honest, I didn’t do Ms. Berry’s recipe because it called for latticework, and…I’m not great at the latticework. So, this classic version was right up my alley. First up? The treacle. For my American friends, treacle isn’t some weird thing – it’s either molasses (which is what I was thinking), or golden syrup (which is what is used in treacle tarts). I lucked out that my local grocery carries Lyle’s Golden Syrup, otherwise Amazon would have been delivering!
I couldn’t believe my small local grocery carries this!
I might have made a mistake and used pre-made bread crumbs instead of fresh, but the recipe didn’t specify, and I did not have good bread to make into fresh crumbs. It’s interesting that this goo will become a delicious tart!
It looks a little weird, but it smells like lemons, so I’m hoping it tastes as good as it smells
Okay, update…disaster may have struck. The power went out in the middle of making the tart. I have no idea if it did anything to the bake, I’m hoping not, but I’m not sure. Fingers crossed!
Bake beautifully, my little tart
It looks fine! Actually, it looks pretty amazing, if I do say so myself. The crust is a little…rustic, but overall it looks just about exactly like the picture on the website. Woohoo!
It’s so pretty!! It smells like sugar and lemons
My husband and I were the brave taste testers, and it was both better than I thought, and just about exactly what I thought. What do I mean by that? Well, it was better than I thought because it wasn’t a disaster, it had a lovely, subtle lemony flavor and the crust was crisp, short, and no soggy bottom! It was exactly what I thought in that it was very, very sweet. I now understand why Harry Potter ate a little hand-sized tart in the movies – that’s about all you can eat without being over-sweeted (is that a word? It is now!).
A little whipped cream to help cut all of the sugary goodness
I would be willing to make the treacle tart again, maybe as a tartlet. I would make the pastry a hair thinner, but that’s about the only adjustment I’d make. I don’t think using the pre-made breadcrumbs did anything negative to the tart, but since I’ve never had it before I can’t make that call with complete confidence. All in all, a successful first try at a treacle tart!
