Guinness Treacle Tart for St. Patrick's Day
and the **OTHER** shocking UK scandal
Today’s recipe is for a treacle tart, made more Irish with the addition of Guinness. If you’d rather skip straight to the recipe and not read about the latest scandal, which really should be top of the news, way ahead of Kate Middleton, please skip below.
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The Other British Scandal
When I set out to tell you the story of the oldest British brand logo still in use today, little did I know there was a big kerfuffle afoot.
After 141 years, Lyle’s Golden Syrup has decided to change its logo.
This shocked people. How could such a beloved brand remove the ever-recognizable symbol that even from far away was instantly recognizable as Lyle’s Golden Syrup?
And then all of Britain looked a little more closely, and noticed that the logo was of a lion: A DEAD lion, lying on its side, with bees hovering around it.
It turns out that Abram Lyle, the Scot who founded the company was a devout Christian and thought the parable of Samson provided a suitable motto for his syrup.
For those who don’t remember (or, like me, never knew), in Judges 14:14, brave Samson kills a lion with his bare hands. He returns a few days later to find that bees have built a hive inside the lion’s carcass, so as proud Samson gathers up the honey, brings it to his parents and offers it up to people at his wedding with a riddle – because, I guess if you can rip apart a lion with your hands, your wedding guests will be too afraid to tell you it’s obnoxious to make your invitees answer riddles at your wedding.
The riddle: “Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet." Lyle thought this the ideal motto for his company and shortened it to a tin-friendly length: "Out of the strong came forth sweetness.”
So, the gruesome scene of the decomposing lion that no one actually ever noticed is now to be replaced on bottles with a happy-go-lucky lion with a mane styled by Dairy Queen and an ever-so-boopable heart-shaped nose.
A spokesperson for Tate and Lyle’s offered up a wussy bundle of AI-sounding marketing speak in defense of the new dandy lion. In an article in Wales OnLine: a the marketing exec was quoted as saying, “While we’ll continue to honor our original branding with the heritage tin, consumers need to see brands moving with the times and meeting their current needs. Our fresh, contemporary design brings Lyle’s into the modern day, appealing to the everyday British household while still feeling nostalgic and authentically Lyle’s.
He continued! “We’re confident that the fresh new design will make it easier for consumers to discover Lyle’s as an affordable, everyday treat, while re-establishing the brand as the go-to syrup brand for the modern UK family, featuring the same delicious taste that makes you feel Absolutely Golden.”
I did not know my current needs involved seeing a less-dead lion on my golden syrup container, but live and learn.
None of this should take away from the wonder that is Lyle’s Golden Syrup. Those of you who’ve baked my pecan pie know the secret is Lyle’s. It gives a depth of flavor that regular corn syrup never will.
Golden Syrup is an invert syrup, from an earlier stage in the molasses-making process. It is amber-colored, with a consistency similar to honey, and while it’s ever-so sweet, it is warm and caramel in flavor.
Today’s recipe is for a special St. Patrick’s Day treacle tart. The typical intense sweetness (similar to pecan pie) of treacle is tempered by the addition of orange zest and some Guinness stout
Often served with cream or custard drizzled on top, I prefer the tang of a dollop of sour cream.
Notes:
Thanks to all my loyal readers who sleuthed out the best sources for Lyle’s Golden Syrup in the U.S. You guys are terrific! Any good British or Irish specialty grocery will carry it, along with World Market and some larger supermarket chains, including Kroger’s and ShopRite. When Whole Foods is in the mood it carries it, but its big brother Amazon, well, of course they have it.
The recipe calls for fresh breadcrumbs: Remove the crusts from 4 pieces of commercial white bread. Grate into fine crumbs, or as fine as possible, considering the bread is fresh. I used 4 slices of Pepperidge Farm sandwich bread. Of course you can use any fresh bread you want for this. Rye bread is a nice twist.
Other traditional additions to treacle tart are ground ginger (1/2 teaspoon or so) and lemon juice. In fact, if Guinness ain’t your thing, substitute 2 tablespoons of lemon juice.
I made a 9-inch tart. If that seems like too much, halve the recipe and make it in a 5-inch tart or pie pan. Or make one large one, cut it into quarters and freeze the others, wrapped well to prevent dreaded freezer burn.
The crust is a traditional sweet cookie crust. I love it and always make sure I bake off any leftover dough into thick cookies that I sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
Guinness Stout Treacle Tart
Makes one 9-inch tart
You will need a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom, or a 9-inch pie pan.
What You’ll Need:
For the crust:
2 cups (225 grams) all-purpose flour
4 ounces (113 grams) butter, cut into 16 pieces
3 tablespoons confectioner’s sugar
1 egg yolk
pinch salt
For the filling:
454 grams Lyle’s Golden Syrup (1 11-fluid ounce bottle)
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
Zest of 2 oranges
1/4 cup Guinness stout (the foamy head doesn’t count!)
Generous 1 cup (3 ounces) fresh breadcrumbs (see note above)
What You’ll Do:
1. In a stand mixer, or by hand, mix together the flour, confectioner’s sugar and butter on medium speed until the mixture resembles wet sand. Top tip: Drape a clean dish towel over the top of the mixer to prevent flour from flying everywhere. Stop the mixer once or twice to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
2. Add the egg yolk and blend until incorporated. Add 2 tablespoons of ice water and blend on medium-low until the dough starts to clump together. Grab a handful of the dough and squeeze. Does it hold its shape? If so, move to step 3. If not, add a tablespoon more of ice water, blend and try again. Tempting as it is to add lots of water, one of the secrets to a good, crumbly crust is to add as little as possible.
3. Bring the dough together and shape it into a disk. Lightly flour a pastry board. Roll the dough out into an 11-inch (or so) circle, spinning the dough a quarter-turn after each roll to ensure the dough doesn’t stick. Add more flour underneath if sticking occurs. The dough should be about ¼-inch thick.
4. Line the 9-inch tart pan with the dough. The dough should reach up the sides of the tart pan. Smooth your rolling pin across the top of the pan to trim off excess dough. Save this for cookies (and for patching any part that need patching.
)
5. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Heat the oven to 400 degrees F.
6. After the dough has chilled, prick the dough all over with a fork to prevent it bubbling when it bakes. (The fork should only go halfway into the dough.) Blind bake the crust: Place a piece of parchment or foil over the dough and line the parchment with pie weights. I use dried black beans for pie weights.
7. Bake the pie for 15 minutes. Remove the parchment and pie weights and bake naked for a further 10 minutes or until light golden in color. Remove from oven, and lower temperature to 325 degrees F.
8. Meanwhile, prepare filling: Mix together the syrup, orange zest, Guinness (or lemon juice), and eggs. Stir in the breadcrumbs.
9. Pour the mixture into the tart crust and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the filling is golden brown and set. It should not jiggle.
10. Eat warm with cream, custard, ice cream, or my favorite, a dollop of sour cream.
And may the wind be at your back, the road rise up to meet you and may you find gold and golden syrup at the end of your rainbow.
Oh my goodness gracious, I was up and down the step stool into baking supplies today. I even checked that my supply of Lyle’s was adequate. But I never noticed the lion except cursory glance
But I have to climb step stool again to put a few more things away
I have to confess I had to Google "treacle" as I couldn't remember what it actually means. This sounds great and seems fairly easy to make. I always need another St. Patrick's Day recipe. Go raibh maith agat (per Google - thank you very much in Gaelic).