Syrup Tart

Stephanie director of Topsail writes about making syrup tarts as a special request. They went down so well they may become a permeantfeature.

I’ve long had an interest in cooking and food. Indeed before going to uni, I wanted to go to Prue Leiths Cookery School, although there was no way my parents could afford it.

Paul and I often say that Topsail Charters is a food company on barges, and hopefully our passion for quality food shows through. This weekend we were asked by a customer to substitute the chocolate roulade for syrup tart, and I stuck my hand up pretty quickly to make them ! As a child, it was one of my favourite puddings, and I guess it originated as a cheap way to produce a pudding using up bread.

Although I have plenty of cook books at home, I decided to use Mary Berry’s recipe with homemade shortcrust pastry, and a large amount of lemon and rind to counter the sweetness of the syrup.

One thing I hate about making pastry, is the mess, but here is a great tip for lining a tin with very short pastry that crumbles and cracks – take the tin base out and put on grease proof baking paper.  Draw a circle round it with a 2cm extra edge. Put a lump of pastry in the middle and roll it to the required thickness to the edge of the paper. Place the tin base on top, flip it over and place in tin.  Press pastry into edges and trim.  No floury mess and no floppy pastry all over the place !

Here is a picture of the finished product, delicious served warm with cream or custard.