2016 was a fantastic year for Harry Potter fans. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter had its grand opening at the Universal Hollywood location, curtains went up for The Cursed Child play in London and Newt Scamander made his worldwide movie debut in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. It’s hard to believe I thought the final movie in 2011 would be the end of the Harry Potter era. But JK Rowling has showed us that the magic isn’t over yet.
So, let’s celebrate the resurgence of the Wizarding World with Harry Potter’s favorite dessert: treacle tart. The traditional British dessert is made of golden syrup, bread crumbs and lemon—a rather odd combination but delicious. Thanks to my Harry Potter cookbook, I was able to figure out how to make it the muggle way.
#SpoonTip: Note that prep time says almost three hours, but that includes two hours of chill time for the dough. Also, the recipe calls for 2 1/4 cups of bread crumbs, but the treacle tart ended up being a bit too crumb-y, so I would suggest using less or adding more syrup.
Treacle Tart
Ingredients
Instructions
Start with the crust. Place the flour, confectioners’ sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor to combine. A large mixing bowl and hand mixer will work if a food processor is not available.
Scatter chunks of the cold butter sticks over the flour mixture. Pulse (or whisk with hand mixer) until the butter is fully incorporated—should look like coarse yellow meal without any white powdery bits remaining.
If in a food processor bowl, transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks with the cream and vanilla, and then pour them into the flour-butter mixture. Toss together until dough is combined. If dough is too dry, add 1 more tablespoon of cream (better too wet than too dry).
Divide the dough in half, form into disks, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours or up to 3 days.
Before rolling out the dough, prepare the filling. Warm the golden syrup in the microwave for a minute. Combine the warm syrup, bread crumbs, lemon zest and lemon juice in a mixing bowl.
Preheat oven to 400°F. On a floured surface, roll out one disk of chilled dough to an 11-inch circle. Fold it in quarters, then unfold into a 9-inch tart pan. Press the dough gently into the fluted edges and trim the dough even with the rim.
#SpoonTip: Don’t have a tart pan? It’s not the end of the world if you use a rounded pie plate, like me.
Pour the filling into the prepared crust and smooth the top. Roll out the second disk of dough, and cut into long strips for lattice topping.
Lay half the strips of dough over the filling in one direction and the other half in the opposite direction to form a lattice. Trim the overhang, and brush the beaten egg (with 1 tablespoon of water) over the lattice.
Bake for 10 minutes. Then reduce the temperature to 375°F and bake another 25 minutes, or until the crust is browned and the filling puffs up in the center. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.