Homemade Treacle Tart Recipe: How to Make Treacle Tart
Written by MasterClass
Last updated: Aug 31, 2022 • 4 min read
Treacle tart is a classic British sweet that confounds many non-Brits. Learn what treacle is, and how to make it into a delicious tart filling using stale breadcrumbs and a lemon.
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What Is Treacle Tart?
Treacle tart is a traditional British dessert consisting of a flaky shortcrust pastry crust filled with a thick, creamy confectionery filling flavored with treacle. This sweet syrup is combined with simple pantry staples like heavy cream, breadcrumbs, eggs, and lemon juice to create a luxuriously rich dessert filling with notes of caramel. This rustic treat, which dates back to the nineteenth century, is perfect for teatime snacking or a holiday dessert spread. Despite its long history, Harry Potter fans around the world likely know treacle tart best as a certain boy wizard’s favorite dessert.
What Does Treacle Tart Taste Like?
The primary flavor of treacle tart comes from the syrupy substance that lends it its name: treacle. This thick, sticky ingredient—which is made from partly refined sugar—comes in two varieties: light treacle, also known as golden syrup, and the darker, richer black treacle (aka molasses). While both types of treacle have a syrupy texture and sugary taste, black treacle has a slightly bitter flavor while light treacle has a more buttery, caramelized flavor. For this reason, corn syrup, which is sweet but relatively flavorless, should not be substituted for treacle. This treacle tart recipe, which calls for light treacle, has a creamy, rich flavor with hints of lemon set against a buttery tart shell.
3 Tips for Making Treacle Tart
Bakers of all skill levels can successfully master this classic dessert. These easy-to-follow tips will help you make the most of your treacle tart.
- 1. Make the crust first. Plan ahead so that you have plenty of time to blind bake your homemade shortcrust pastry dough. If you’re short on time, you can use a store-bought pie crust as the base of this recipe to majorly cut down on prep time.
- 2. Make your own breadcrumbs. For the best flavor and texture, use homemade breadcrumbs, rather than the store-bought variety. To make your own breadcrumbs, toast some fresh bread—or let it sit out on the counter for a day—before pulsing it in a blender or food processor until you get fine breadcrumbs.
- 3. Change up the fat. While this recipe calls for butter, for an extra rich and flaky tart, try swapping out half of the butter for lard. This old-fashioned pastry ingredient will produce the flakiest crust possible.
Treacle Tart Recipe
makes
prep time
1 hr 30 mintotal time
2 hr 25 mincook time
55 hrIngredients
For the shortcrust pastry:
For the filling:
- 1
Make the shortcrust pastry. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour and salt.
- 2
Using your hands, add the cold butter to the dry ingredients, working it into the flour until the mixture reaches the texture of coarse breadcrumbs.
- 3
Slowly drizzle the cold water over the pastry mixture and stir until well combined and slightly crumbly. You may not need all of the water.
- 4
Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface, and gently knead the dough for about 1 minute.
- 5
Form the dough into a ball, and flatten it into a disk, about 1 inch thick.
- 6
Wrap the pastry dough in plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator to chill for 1 hour.
- 7
When the dough is almost ready, preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and lightly grease a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom or pie plate.
- 8
Remove the dough from the refrigerator and place it on a lightly floured surface.
- 9
Roll the dough out to just wider than the tart tin, about 10 inches, and carefully set it in the pan and use your fingers to gently press the dough into the tart mold.
- 10
Using a fork, prick the base of the dough 5–6 times.
- 11
Place a sheet of parchment paper over the crust and fill the center of the paper with pie weights, rice, or dried beans.
- 12
Transfer the tart pan to the oven and blind bake the crust until mostly set, about 10 minutes.
- 13
Remove the beans and parchment paper from the crust and continue baking the crust until it is just beginning to brown, about 10 minutes.
- 14
In a medium bowl, make the filling. Stir together the treacle, bread crumbs, cream, egg, and lemon zest and juice until combined.
- 15
Pour the treacle filling into the blind-baked crust.
- 16
Return the tart pan to the oven and bake until the filling is set and golden brown, 30–35 minutes.
- 17
Remove the tart from the oven and allow it to cool for 10 minutes before slicing.
- 18
Serve the treacle tart with a scoop of whipped cream, clotted cream, or vanilla ice cream, if desired.
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