Salted Caramel Treacle Tart (GF)

I happened across this gluten free salted caramel treacle tart combination by happy accident, while thinking of ways to use my salted caramel sauce in desserts.

Treacle tart is a dessert classic, but this modern twist turns it into a brilliant gluten free dinner party dessert for those cold winter months. Or, of course, you can just bake one in advance and then microwave for a delicious midweke gluten free treat for your family.

I have a lovely homemade gluten free shortcrust recipe you can use for the base of this tart. It’s quick and easy to make and yields a lovely, buttery shortcrust pastry. Simply use the sweet variation of the recipe, which you’ll find detailed in the post.

Pre-made shortcrust or mixes would be great too. Oast to Host do a wonderful shortcrust pastry mix, which is my recommendation if you do not want to make it from scratch.

Gluten Free Salted Caramel Treacle Tart

Ingredients

90g salted butter
60g light brown sugar
60g golden caster sugar
60ml + 100ml golden syrup
150ml fresh double cream
1.5 tsp Maldon salt flakes
350g gluten free shortcrust pastry
150g fine gluten free bread crumbs (brown or white both work well – I prefer brown)
1 egg plus an egg yolk
An extra egg yolk for glazing the pastry

Method

Preheat the oven to 200C.
First up, make the base salted caramel sauce. Melt the butter, light brown sugar, caster sugar and golden syrup together in a small non-stick pan over a low heat. Cook very gently for 10 minutes or until it is starting to bubble and simmer slightly. Swirl the pan to mix the ingredients.
Add the cream and the salt to the pan, swirling to ensure fully mixed and then cook for another minute on a low heat to warm the cream.
Then remove from the heat and pour into a large bowl. Set aside to allow to cool slightly while you bake the pastry.
Place a 30cm piece of cling film onto your worktop and dust well with gluten free flour. Pop the chilled shortcrust pastry dough on top of the cling film, then greaseproof paper on top of the dough.
Use a rolling pin to roll the pastry out to 0.5cm thick in a large circular shape – wide enough to completely cover the tart tin and sides. If there’s any breaking or uneven edges you can just patch them up easily with other pieces of pastry.
Carefully ease the side of the pastry onto the floured rolling pin, then carefully slide onto the tart tin.
Gently tuck the pastry into the tin, pressing down to completely cover the base and around the sides. Use a sharp knife to slice off any excess pastry (you can save these offcuts in the fridge for later use). You should be left with a nice neat edge.
Use a fork to gently prick holes in the base of the pastry tart (image below).
Place the used greaseproof paper on top of the pastry and tin, adding baking beads to fill (see image below) so that you can “blind bake” the tart. Place it into the oven to blind bake for 10 minutes at 180C.
After this, remove from the oven, lift out the baking beads and greaseproof paper and return to the over to bake for 10 minutes at 160C (fan). Remove the gluten free pastry from the oven and set aside for a moment while you finish the filing.
Take the bowl containing the salted caramel sauce and add the 100ml golden syrup, the egg plus extra egg yolk and 150g gluten free bread crumbs. Stir until all the ingredients are well-combined, then pour into the pastry case.
Now bake the filled tart in the oven for 30 minutes at 160C, then a further 30 minutes at 140C until the tart is just set with a slight wobble in the middle.
Allow the tart to cool slightly and firm up before serving. This can be eaten warm or cold and is also easy to microwave or rewarm in the oven if you prefer to make it advance. Serve the gluten free salted caramel treacle tart with your favourite topping – clotted cream, ice-cream and custard all work well. Am extra drizzle of salted caramel sauce won’t go amiss either :).