TREACLE TART

You spend the week drinking an average of 7.5 cups of coffee per day and you sleep 0.5 hours per night and have coffee cake for dinner and carry half your bathroom and wardrobe from home to arse-end of the universe and then to work and then to the centre and then back, then the weekend comes and you kind of hold right to the biggest slice of treacle tart you can possibly imagine with a mountain of vegan clotted cream on the side. Fill your tummy and smile and happy Monday.

TREACLE TART

165g (1 ¼ cups) plain flour

60g (¼ cup) margarine, cold

60g (¼ cup) vegetable fat, cold

3 tablespoons water, ice cold

Filling:

400g (14oz) golden syrup

150g (5½oz) fine breadcrumbs

zest and juice of 1 lemon

In a large bowl, cut margarine and vegetable fat into the flour using a fork until it gets all crumbly. Place the bowl in the freezer for about 15 minutes. Take it out and add the ice cold water, one tablespoon at a time, until the dough sticks together. Knead for a minute then form it into a ball, wrap in cling film and put in the fridge for at least 1 hour. Next preheat the oven to 200C (400F) and put a baking tray in the oven to heat up. Lightly grease a 18cm (7") tart tin. When ready take the pastry out of the fridge and roll it out thinly on a lightly floured surface, then line the prepared tin with the pastry. Prick the base with a fork, to stop the base rising up during baking. 

Next make the filling. Heat the golden syrup over low heat until melted. Add the breadcrumbs, lemon juice and zest and mix until combined. If the mixture is too runny, add a couple more tablespoons of breadcrumbs. Pour the syrup mixture into the pastry case and level the surface. Bake for about 10 minutes until the pastry has started to colour, then reduce the oven temperature to 180C (350F). Bake for a further 20-25 minutes until the pastry is golden-brown and the filling set. Remove the tart from the oven and leave to firm up in the tin on a cooling rack. Serve warm or cold with vegan clotted cream.