Treacle tart is a traditional English dessert. It is made using shortcrust pastry

Shortcrust pastry

Shortcrust pastry is a type of pastry often used for the base of a tart or pie. It does not puff up during baking because it usually contains no leavening agent. It is possible to make shortcrust pastry with self-raising flour, however...

, with a thick filling made of golden syrup

Golden syrup

Golden syrup is a pale treacle. It is a thick, amber-colored form of inverted sugar syrup, made in the process of refining sugar cane juice into sugar, or by treatment of a sugar solution with acid. It is used in a variety of baking recipes and desserts. It has an appearance similar to honey, and...

, also known as light treacle

Treacle

Treacle is any syrup made during the refining of sugar and is defined as "uncrystallized syrup produced in refining sugar". Treacle is used chiefly in cooking as a form of sweetener or condiment....

, breadcrumbs, and lemon juice. The tart is normally served hot or warm with a scoop of clotted cream

Clotted cream

Clotted cream is a thick cream made by indirectly heating full-cream cow's milk using steam or a water bath and then leaving it in shallow pans to cool slowly. During this time, the cream content rises to the surface and forms 'clots' or 'clouts'...

, ordinary cream, ice cream or custard. Some more recent recipes add cream or eggs to make a softer filling.

This dessert is also featured in the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car is a children's book written by Ian Fleming for his son Caspar, with illustrations by John Burningham...

. The childcatcher, in an attempt to lure out the children from the basement, calls out that he is giving away free sweets. His mention of free treacle tarts is the selling point for the boy, convincing him to be lured out into the street.

"Treacle tart" is Cockney rhyming slang

Cockney rhyming slang

Rhyming slang is a form of phrase construction in the English language and is especially prevalent in dialectal British English from the East End of London; hence the alternative name, Cockney rhyming slang...

 for "sweetheart".

External links

• Treacle tart recipe by Heston Blumenthal from Times Online
  The Times
  The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
  
  
• Treacle tart recipe by Nigel Slater from The Guardian
  The Guardian
  The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...