Truly Scrumptious Treacle Tart Recipe!

Hello Again Blog Buddies!

Welcome back to this weeks recipe.

 

After last weeks pork pie recipe we're staying on the traditional British vibe this week with a gorgeous classic pudding.



I can honestly say that I can't think of anyone I know who doesn't like treacle tart. It's one of those desserts that many will remember fondly from school dinners from years ago, or grandma making for Sunday tea time as a special treat. Its another one of those thrifty dishes that has stood the test of time because of its simplicity and, of course, its sweet, chewy deliciousness. It's hardly going to help with your weight-watchers diet, or your 5 and 2 diet, or your caveman diet, or whatever the newest innovation in denying yourself the simple pleasures in life is at the moment but if you're going to treat yourself then I always think you might as well properly treat yourself! I mean I watch what I eat and I go to the gym at least 3 times a week, so if I want to make such a naughty pudding then I will do, because I deserve it! Besides, I've always thought that if you spend time making such treats as this then you'll respect it more and won't be so tempted to eat the whole thing once it's made, and you'll be more likely to have people over to share it with which means you'll be enjoying food as it should be enjoyed, sitting round a table with a group of friends, chatting and  laughing, which is actually a proven way of reducing how much you eat. Much better for you than sitting in front of the telly, eating "calorie controlled" diet meal slop from the microwave container, wheres the fun in that?

I've kept my treacle tart recipe fairly traditional, with just the addition of a little lemon zest in the pastry and a good squeeze of lemon juice in the filling, just to cut through the sweetness a little. I had a look through the various recipes on the Internet that added all kinds of stuff from ginger or apples (!)  to black pepper to the tart, using different kinds of breadcrumbs, mixing golden syrup with black treacle and adding sugar to the pastry but I thought sometimes, traditional is best!  ( I quite fancied trying a bit of black pepper actually, but I thought no, lets keep it simple.)

I've made my own pastry for this recipe and I urge you to do so too. I'm not the best pastry chef in the world as I have what is known as "bread hands". That is, I have big, warm hands more suitable to pulverising and kneading to get a good stretchy bread dough than pastry which requires cool hands and a lightness of touch to achieve a short, crumbly, light pastry. There are a few simple tips to help anyone also afflicted by "bread hands" that I've been shown on the way through my cheffing career which I'll share with you now:

1: Make sure everything you are using is cold. The butter, the flour and the water can all be weighed or measured out and put in the fridge before you start, even the mixing bowl, spoon and rolling pin!

2: Your kitchen should be cool too, so open a window or door and don't turn the oven on until just before you need it. ( In one restaurant kitchen I worked in in London the pastry chef used to make all of his in the walk-in fridge to ensure he got the best pastry possible!)

3: Don't overwork your pastry. You only need to do just enough to it so that it can be rolled out to form the case for the tart, you don't need to knead it to get it smooth as this will melt the fat and release the gluten from the flour and you'll end up with a chewy, hard,shrunken case. If you feel that you have overworked it stick it back in the fridge for 10 minutes to relax, then carry on.

4: Use your freezer. When you have got your case in the baking tin, give it a good 15 minutes in the freezer to firm up. It doesn't matter if it is completely frozen when you come to blind bake it, although it may take a little longer to bake.

5: Keep an eye on the pastry while it is blind baking, with any pastry  the quantities used are crucial,  but normal household ovens can be wildly inaccurate when it comes to temperature so the timings I've given in the recipe are really just a guide.You don't really want the pastry to take on any colour when blind baking but it needs to be cooked through so the filling doesn't leak into it when you are ready to finish the tart.

Right then, enough rules! lets get on with the recipe.

Treacle Tart (makes 8-10 portions.)

 

Equipment: (for the pastry.)

Kitchen scales.

Rolling pin.

Mixing bowl.

Metal tablespoon.

26cm loose bottomed baking tin.

2 pieces of greaseproof paper, large enough to more than cover the baking tin.

Marble pastry board, if you have one.

2 handfuls of uncooked rice, or baking beans, or loose change to weigh down the greaseproof paper whilst blind baking.

Pastry brush.

Ingredients:

300g plain flour.

150g of butter, diced evenly and chilled.

3-4 tablespoons of ice cold water.

Zest of half a lemon.

Half a teaspoon of salt.

1 egg, beaten.

Extra butter for greasing the tin.

A little extra flour for flouring the tin and rolling out the pastry.

Method:

Lightly grease the baking tin with butter and then add a little flour, shake the tin round to coat the butter with flour, tip out any excess flour and put the tin in the freezer.















Put the flour, lemon zest and salt in a mixing bowl and add the chilled butter dice. Using just your fingertips rub the butter into the flour until it looks like fine breadcrumbs.








Add 3 tablespoons of water and gently mix it in with the metal tablespoon.

Gently press together the dough to form a ball, if it is too crumbly add another tablespoon of water.

Flatten the pastry out into a thick disk, and pop into the fridge for 10 minutes.









Put one of the sheets of greaseproof paper on the marble pastry board, or your work surface and lightly flour it.

Put your pastry on top of the floured greaseproof and lightly flour the top of the dough.

 Put the second sheet of greaseproof on top of the dough and roll it out with the rolling pin. ( the best way of doing this is to start in the middle of the dough and roll away from you, then turn the greaseproof paper sheets, with the dough in between, all the way round and repeat, then turning half way round to roll the other way, this will give you a nice even thickness across the pastry.)

Make sure the dough is rolled out enough to fill the baking tin with a bit extra all the way round.

 

 Then, put the tin upside down on the pastry and slide the bottom sheet of greaseproof off the work surface and turn over so the pastry is now sitting in the tin. ( Unfortunately I only have one pair of hands so couldn't take a picture of me doing this step!)

Gently lift the overhang up and push the pastry into the sides of
the tin all the way round.

If there is a lot of overhanging pastry left then trim it down around the outside edge of the tin.

 Now, take a good look at the pastry, if you see any cracks or tears then patch them up with a bit of the trimmings.

 

 

Then prick the bottom of the dough with a sharp knife and pop the whole thing, uncovered in the freezer while you get on with making the filling.

Treacle Tart Filling:

Equipment:

Food processor.

Large saucepan.

Balloon whisk.

Ingredients:

60g of butter.

450g of Golden Syrup. ( as you can see, I've got a lot of golden syrup! but 1 regular tin will be enough.)

2 tablespoons of double cream.

1 whole egg.

1 egg yolk.

2 tablespoons of lemon juice.

160g of fresh brown breadcrumbs, made from about 7 slices of bread, crusts removed.

A good pinch of salt.(optional)

Method:

Blitz the brown bread slices in the food processor to make the breadcrumbs.











Melt the butter in the saucepan over a medium heat and whisk in the golden syrup. If you are using a tin of the golden syrup then stand it in a bowl of hot water before you start to make it runny and easier to use.












Add the cream to the pan and whisk in, then remove from the heat and whisk in the whole egg and the extra yolk.

Finally, add the breadcrumbs, the lemon juice and a good pinch of salt (if using) and stir to combine.












Now to blind bake the pastry case!

Heat the oven to 180 degrees c/ gas mark 4.

Remove the pastry case from the freezer.

Scrunch up one of the pieces of greaseproof paper you used before to roll out the pastry and line the inside of the pastry case with it.

Fill the greaseproof with the rice, baking beans or whatever you are using to weigh it down and spread out evenly across the paper, making sure it gets right into the edge of the pastry.





Put the whole thing in the oven on a low shelf and bake for 15-20 minutes, until the pastry is cooked through. To test for this, you can remove it from the oven and press the centre of the pastry through the greaseproof, if it still feels soft then give it another 5 minutes in the oven.

Once you are happy that the case is baked then remove the greaseproof and rice and put back in the oven for a five minutes just to dry out the bottom of the pastry where the greaseproof has been.












After 5 minutes, remove from the oven and give it a good egg wash all over the bottom and sides and pop back in the oven for another 5 minutes.

As you can see from the photo the case hasn't shrunk at all, which means all the hard work making the dough has paid off and means you have a great, short, crumbly pastry!

 









When the egg washed pastry has had its 5 minutes remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes, then trim off the excess pastry from the top to leave a nice clean edge.

You can now fill the pastry with the treacle mixture and finish the bake.

Bake for 10 minutes at 180 degrees c/ gas mark 4, then turn the heat down to 140 degrees c/gas mark 1 and continue to bake for around 45 minutes until golden brown.
The centre of the filling should still be a little loose and "jiggly" when you take it out as this will continue to cook and set just perfectly as it cools.











When cooled remove the outer ring of the tin by putting a glass or food tin under the centre of the loose bottom and the outer ring should just drop down out of the way.

Cut into slices whilst still slightly warm and serve with just a splash of cream. Ice-cream or even a little jug of homemade custard are just as delicious!

And there it is! truly rich, slightly chewy on top and sweet with a lovely crisp, crumbly,buttery pastry. Invite some friends round to share it with them and just watch the excess weight fall off!!

Thanks again for having a look at my blog, I'm off out tonight ( Wednesday 30th July.)to a "soft opening" of a very swish looking new restaurant in Birmingham. As promised, I will be doing a review over the next couple of days so keep your eyes peeled for it!

Until next time then, foodie friends,

Happy cooking!

 

Mat.

Pork Pie Perfection?

Hello There Peckish Posse!

Welcome back to my recipe blog.

This week I wanted to do  something for you that not only have I never tried cooking before but also isn't my own recipe.
Most of the blogs I've done for you so far have been from my own tried and trusted recipes, things I've tweaked and adjusted over the years to create dishes that, in my opinion, are pretty much foolproof and get the most out of the ingredients used but I am a naturally inquisitive chef and love to try new things to cook. Sometimes these work straight off the bat, sometimes I can be quite disappointed with the results, especially when I've stuck to a recipe that may have come from a Sunday newspaper food supplement or a recipe book.

This weeks pork pie is a case in point. It's an old family recipe that my mom always used to make for Christmas and was always the best pork pie I have ever tasted. Or was it?
Memory can be a strange thing sometimes, particularly when it comes to food. For instance, when I was a kid I couldn't stand tomatoes, they literally made me feel sick. Obviously as you get older your taste buds change and these days I can munch my way through every variety of them, from tiny baby plum tomatoes with their thick skins and firm flesh to mild and juicy beef tomatoes. Sometimes though, I can be about to bite into a tomato and just for a split second I get that sickly feeling I used to have all those years ago. It doesn't stop me from eating them, but the memory is still there in my mind.

So, I got my mom to dig out the recipe for the pork pie for me and thought I'd give it a go without changing anything, not the ingredients, cooking times, method, anything, just to see if my memory served me correctly.

What I ended up with was a perfectly acceptable home made pork pie. I took some to the blokes at work and they were mightily impressed, I took a couple of slices with me in a picnic over Cannock Chase to share with a beautiful woman, who was also sufficiently satisfied. But, and this is crucial to me, my own thoughts on it were, to put it into modern vernacular, "meh!"
Don't get me wrong, it's a great recipe, the meat was perfectly cooked, the jelly was tasty and it looked really impressive with its shiny egg washed glazed top but, for the amount of time and effort I'd put into it I wasn't totally happy.
The main problem for me was the pastry. While the top was nice and short with a lovely crumbly texture the sides and base seemed to be a little undercooked. It may be the case that a bit longer in the oven would have sorted this but I think a more satisfying solution would be to blind bake a pastry base first ( there's no blind baking in the recipe and I had a look on the Internet to see if there was a different one that called for blind baking, but couldn't find one.)  then assemble the rest of the pie and bake it again. As I said, the original recipe is a good one, it's not difficult and there was certainly nothing wrong with the taste or texture of the rest of it, so what I'm going to do is give you the recipe for you to try and at some stage in the future I'll revisit it and see if I can get it to my liking.

OK then, lets get on with my moms recipe Pork Pie!

Pork Pie Recipe. ( makes one large pie, about 12-16 slices.)

Equipment:

9" springform cake tin.

Kitchen scales.

Rolling pin.

Medium saucepan.

Large mixing bowl.

Measuring jug.

Pastry brush.

Ingredients: (for the pie.)

1kg joint of boned pork shoulder.

400g pork belly. (slices or whole.)

250g of smoked middle bacon.

2 tablespoons of English mustard.

1 tablespoon dried sage.

Half a tablespoon of dried thyme.

Half of a whole nutmeg, grated, or 1 teaspoon of ground nutmeg.

1 teaspoon of salt.

1 teaspoon of ground white pepper.

200g of lard.

575g of plain flour.

220ml cold water.

1 egg, beaten, for the glaze.

Ingredients: (for the jelly.)

6 gelatine leaves.

250ml of chicken stock, or 1 chicken stock cube made up with 250ml boiling water.

Half a teaspoon of dried parsley.

Method:

Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees c/ gas mark 4.

Remove the rind and as much fat as you can from the pork joint. ( you can freeze this to make crackling or scratchings at a later date.)

 









Cut the meat into 3 manageable pieces, then "butterfly" each piece to make it easier to chop up. ( to butterfly is to cut each piece almost all of the way through and open it out, it makes the next stage a lot easier, see picture.)

You can then start to cut the meat small chunks.
There is quite a lot of cutting to do for this recipe, I suppose you could use minced pork if you wanted to make it easier but I much prefer the texture of the meat if it is cut.

Put the chopped meat into the mixing bowl and then remove the rind and any little bits of bone from the pork belly. Chop this up too, in the same size chunks as the shoulder meat and add it to the mixing bowl.













Cut up the bacon in the same way and, once again put it in the mixing bowl with the belly and shoulder meat.
















To the bowl add the mustard, nutmeg, thyme, sage and salt and pepper and give it a thorough mixing with your hands so that everything is nicely seasoned throughout.


Set the meat mixture aside whilst you do the pastry.


Put the 220ml of water and the lard in a saucepan and gently bring to the boil so the lard melts.

Weigh out the flour and put in a large mixing bowl.

When the lard has melted in the water, add to the flour in the bowl.

Then begin bringing the pastry together using a wooden spoon.
(you need to work quite quickly with the pastry from now on)















When the pastry starts to come together go in with your hands. The pastry will be hot so please be careful, but you do need to get it done quickly so go at it as soon as you can and whilst the pastry is as hot as you can stand.

Once the pastry comes together remove from the bowl and knead until nice and smooth. ( about 5 minutes kneading will do the trick)














Cut about a quarter of the pastry off and wrap in clingfilm, or pop into a freezer bag to use as the lid.

With the rest of the pastry, roll it out to about the same size as the springform tin and carefully place it in the bottom.

It doesn't matter if the pastry is a little small, as you are now going to "hand raise" the pie crust.

With your hands, gently push the pastry into the bottom rim of the tin, then push it up the sides, being careful not to tear the pastry base. If it does tear then patch it up with a bit from the sides.

Bring the pastry right up the sides of the tin so there is a little over the top .

Try and get the pastry a nice even thickness across the base and up the sides, You have a few minutes to get it right before the pastry cools too much so sqidge and squash it till you're satisfied.

As I said before, there's no "blind baking" of the pastry before you fill it so getting this part right is pretty crucial.

When you are happy with the pastry fill it with the meat, use about a third of the meat first to make sure it gets right into the edges of the pastry, then add the rest of the meat and push it down.














Roll out the remaining quarter of the pastry to approximately the size of the tin.
Then, with the rolling pin, lift it and cover the meat with it.

Press the lid down onto the meat and fold the pastry from the sides of the tin over the lid.

 You can then crimp the edge of the pie using your thumb and forefinger.

Make a hole in the middle of the lid with the handle of a spoon and you are ready to bake!

Put the pie on the bottom shelf of the oven and bake for 40 minutes, then turn the heat down to 160 degrees c and continue to bake for another 90 minutes. Have a check now and then to make sure the top isn't browning too quickly, if it starts to catch then either place a baking sheet on the shelf above the pie or cover the pie loosely with a sheet of tin foil. If your oven is anything like mine ( used a lot!) then it might also be a good idea to turn the pie round a couple of times while baking to ensure it cooks evenly.

After the 90 minutes is up remove the pie from the oven and glaze with the beaten egg. Return to the oven for another 15 minutes, then take it out and give it a second glaze.

 

Give it another 10 minutes baking to get a nice shiny top and remove from the oven.

Now you need to let the pork pie cool completely before you can add the jelly. I left mine out on the window ledge for a couple of hours, covered with a tea towel, then popped it in the fridge overnight, still covered in the tea towel to chill. ( I didn't want to cover it with cling film as this can lead to the top of the pie steaming from the cooling meat and going soggy.)

When the pie is completely cooled, you can make up the jelly.

 

Put the gelatine leaves in a tub of cold water and allow to soften for about 10 minutes. If you are making the stock with a stock cube then make sure it has cooled to room temperature before you add the gelatine as it won't set if the stock is too hot.











Squeeze the excess water from the gelatine and add to the stock.

Then pour the stock, a little at a time into the hole in the lid of the
pork pie.


Put the whole pie, still in the tin, onto a plate to catch any stock that might escape and return to the fridge until the jelly is set. This should take a couple of hours.











Once the Jelly is set, you can release the ring from the springform tin and slice up to serve!

I like mine with some nice homemade piccalilli and a green salad.

And there you go! I do love the taste and texture of the meat in the finished pie, much nicer than the solid lump of minced up who knows what you get in store bought pies!

So, that's it then for another blog. I shall return to this recipe in future when I've tweaked it a bit. Maybe I'll make a batch of smaller pies and bake them without using a tin to get a crisper pastry all over and less of a soggy bottom!

It's going to be another pudding blog next week and I've also been invited to the opening of a new restaurant next week, so I shall be doing a review of it for you soon!

Until next time then,

Happy cooking!

 

Mat.