~Woohoo! First post of 2017! I hope everyone had a great time ringing in the New Year. For those that know me I love (more like obsess over) Harry Potter. And so does my best friend. Our New Year’s plans were having a continuous HP movie marathon while enjoying frosty mugs of butterbeer.
Days prior, I combed through my Harry Potter cookbook looking for a tasty treat I could prepare to accompany the butterbeer. After flipping though the pages a few times, I landed on treacle tart. Treacle tart is Harry’s favorite dessert, so it was only natural to make it. It seemed easy enough, the only issue I foresaw was getting my hands on golden syrup or light molasses.
After my Saturday morning yoga class, I went to the Mariano’s conveniently located across the street from the studio. I already had all the ingredients to make the tart dough, so all I needed were the ingredients to make the filling, which consisted of the molasses, bread crumbs, heavy cream and a lemon. 3 of the 4 things were easy to find, the molasses not so much. I scanned the baking aisle for quite some time before I even found where the molasses was kept. And when I finally found it, they didn’t have light molasses. The recipe said I could also use corn syrup, so I had to settle with that 
If anyone has ever made pie dough from scratch, I salute you. It wasn’t so much difficult as it was a complete mess. After marrying the dry and wet ingredients, a wet, sticky dough monster manifested the bowl and nearly devoured my fingers. I was able to slay said monster, and I sent it to the refrigerated dungeon to sit in time-out for 2 hours. When the dough was able to tell me what it had done, it was rolled flat across the bottom of the cake pan (I don’t have a tart pan).
Once stuffed with the sticky, tangy filling, I used the rest of the tart dough to make a lattice topping reminiscent of the ghosts of pastries past. The tart first baked at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, then finished baking at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. Once cooled enough to eat, I cut out a slice and took a bite. It was surprisingly much more lemony than I thought. The filling called for the zest and juice of one lemon, but that was all I was tasting. It was chewy yet crunchy, and the crust was the perfect combination of flakiness and richness.
Overall, treacle tart wasn’t how I had anticipated eating it. Mostly because of the lack of molasses, now that I think of it. But I’m proud of myself to pulling it off in the first place, and that I made scratch made dough!
I’m very excited to see what this year will bring for my blog, and I’m very excited to share it with you 🙂
I hope you all have a happy and healthy New Year!
The Garden Goddess 