Sometimes unjustly British Food gets a bad rap from people in the food world who don't know very much about our cuisine. I couldn't go into the secound part of British Food Fortnight without sharing with the world my Great Britsh Recipe.
It had been while since I made a treacle tart, and I wanted to make a recipe that was noteworthy. It took me three attempts to get it right, of course I had to bravely eat the lesser ones.
This recipe does take a little more effort, but the taste will be well worth it. I used a 9 1/2in (24cm)tin with a removable bottom.
TOFFEE SAUCE
50g (2oz) granulated sugar
few drops of vanilla essence
25g (1oz) butter
125ml double cream
Heat the sugar in a non-stick saucepan until it starts to brown at the edges.
Move the sugar around without stirring and when it is all melted and lightly brown, remove it from the heat and slowly add the cream, then the vanilla and butter.
Return to the heat for a few minutes until the ingredients are all mixed, stirring once or twice, then allow to cool.
TREACLE TART
250g (1Ooz) sweet/short pastry
200g (8oz) golden syrup
1 Tbsp black treacle
3 Tbsp toffee sauce
juice 1/2 lemon
1 large egg yolk
150g (6oz) white bread (without crusts)
ROLL out your pastry about 3mm thick and lay into your (buttered) tart tin, place in the fridge and rest for 30 minutes.
Grind up your bread in a food processor until it is very finely crumbed.
Add the lemon juice, then the treacle, syrup, toffee sauce and egg yolk.
Preheat oven to 190 C gas mark 4. Pour the mix into the rested pastry case and bake on the middle shelf for 20-30 minutes. Allow to cool for 20 minutes before cutting.
PLUM AND STRAWBERRY TOPPING
8 large plums, stoned and cut into wedges
150g (6oz) strawberries chopped
1 Tbsp raspberry jam
PUT the strawberries and jam into a non-stick saucepan and simmer until the strawberries are very soft, then push the mixture through a fine sieve to make
the sauce. Return the sauce to a clear non-stick saucepan and add the plum wedges. Heat for about 3-4 minutes, then remove from the heat.
TO SERVE
SERVE a portion of tart with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and the plum and strawberry sauce.
www.britishfoodfortnight.co.uk
LissaT
Pro 
We have so many wonderful puddings - not desserts, not sweets - bread and butter pudding, treacle sponge, rice pudding (with a lovely thick brown skin on it), queen of puddings (plus my mother's variation African Queen), sherry trifle (no jelly, please!), jam roly-poly, christmas plum pudding . . . and what are we usually offered? Bog standard tiramasu or black forest gateau. Keep telling people about real puds!