Alright Treacle?

Photo © Rob Jones

Great minds thinking alike here … a recipe prompted by memories of school dinners.

Treacle Tart came to mind. I think maybe it was served with custard.

Oddly it’s not something you see around much these days though given how simple it is to make, and a handy way of using up old bread, I can’t think why. The one downside is the amount of Golden Syrup used in the recipe - if that is indeed a downside.

And therein lies a controversy. Is Golden Syrup treacle? I would say not. And yet Treacle Tart is very definitely made with Golden Syrup. The very same glutinous material I would drizzle over the left-over Yorkshire Pudding after a beefy Sunday lunch (AMM throws hands up in horror to hear of such a thing.)

Golden Syrup was ‘invented’ in the late 1800s by chemists Charles and John Joseph Eastick at the Abram Lyle refinery in east London, now part of the Tate and Lyle conglomerate. It is an inverted sugar syrup made by refining sugar cane or sugar beet. It is not Molasses or Dark Treacle.

Note: tins of Lyle’s Golden Syrup have a picture of a rotting lion carcass with a swarm of bees buzzing over it. A reference to the Book of Judges in the Bible where Samson was looking for a wife and came across a swarm of bees in a lion he had killed. The bees formed a honeycomb in the carcass. Samson retold the story at a wedding where he said ‘Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness.’

It’s unclear why Lyle chose this gory observation for the tin.

You may also like to know that Golden Syrup is a Newtonian fluid, and is often used in fluid mechanics experiments. Treacle was used as a medicine up to the 1600s. It was regarded as very good for the blood..Never say this blog isn’t educational.

You’ll want to make a sweet pastry - however I cheated and found some pre-made pastry cases.

In a bowl, put the breadcrumbs of one slice of white bread, 200g of Golden Syrup, some finely chopped crystalised ginger, the zest and juice of a lemon, two eggs, three heaped table spoons of semolina, a dash and a dash of cream. Mix thoroughly and fill the cases, not quite to the top, the mixture will rise slightly.

Add a few dabs of crystalised ginger on top.

Cook in a moderate oven (150c) for as long as it takes for the tops to start to brown.

Serve with custard or cream to taste.

An absolute trip down memory lane.

R