Treacle Tarts were a very popular dessert for English children from the late 1890s right up through to the 1960s because they were filling and made from cheap, easy to find ingredients.
Despite the name, the main ingredient in Treacle Tart is golden syrup, not treacle – golden syrup is called ‘light treacle’ in some areas.
These days, Treacle Tart is probably most famous as Harry Potter’s favourite food – he even smells treacle tart when affected by Amortentia – a love potion!
Find out why Harry Potter loves these so much by making your own! This recipe makes 12 mini Treacle Tarts.
Gather your kitchen supplies:
- 12 hole standard non stick muffin tin
- Saucepan
- Lemon grater/zester
- Lemon juicer
- Wooden spoon
- Measuring cups
- Measuring spoons
- 8cm round cookie cutter
Gather your ingredients:
- 1-2 sheets of ready made sweet shortcrust pastry
- ½ cup of golden syrup
- ½ cup of fresh, white breadcrumbs
- 1 Tablespoon of treacle
- 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon of lemon zest
- ½ teaspoon of ground ginger
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 180°C
- Spray the muffin tins with oil to prevent the tarts sticking to the pan
- Using a circular cookie cutter (approximately 8cm in diameter) cut out 12 circles of dough and line the muffin tins with them
- To make the filling, put the golden syrup and treacle in the saucepan, stir, and heat on the stovetop, stirring, until the syrup is runny. Take the saucepan off the heat
- Add the breadcrumbs, lemon juice, lemon zest, and ground ginger to the saucepan and stir.
- Carefully pour the filling into the pastry lined muffin tins. You only need a small amount in each one – just fill the pastry cup to around half full
- Bake in the oven for around 15-18 minutes, until pastry is golden
- Cool in the tins for around 5 minutes, then carefully lift out onto a cooling rack
- Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream
Why not try some variations?
- Double the ingredients and make one big treacle tart in a 27cm pie dish, and create a pastry lattice top. You’ll need to cook this for a bit longer, probably around 25 minutes.
- Add ½ Tablespoon of chopped, crystallised ginger for an extra bit of zing!
- Dust with icing sugar before serving.