Thursday, January 5, 2012

Raw Buckwheat Honey in my treacle tart.

What is that you ask? Well it's a $7.95 honey bear full of this crazy, pungent honey. It's like a really stout cheese, there is a love/hate relationship. You like it, but you about gag when you first smell it.

I came across this honey at Silver Dollar City at Christmas time. We had received free tickets and decided to go the busiest day of the year and look at the lights. I saw a lot of lights, camera lights. Don't go on the busiest day of the year (I think that might be any day).

The honey came from a little shop that sold honey from a store in Springfield. MO. I think it was Honey Heaven, fitting name. They have a lot of interesting honey blends and after finding out that there was honey that wasn't clover honey, I decided that honey would be my friend. Clover honey isn't tasty.

This buckwheat honey might not be tasty either, verdict is still out. It can best be described as molassesey, it's very dark with a weird pungent flavor. I like what this site says about it:

"I like to think of buckwheat honey as the tall dark stranger in the honey crowd.  There will be many who are beguiled by its unique charms, but to others its pleasures will remain an enigma." 


I'd say that's a tall dark, stinky stranger.


Verdict is still out.


Ok, so what to do with old stinky...well with it's molasses undertones and my hankering for treacle tart, this seemed like a perfect match. Treacle tart (Harry's fav) requires golden syrup. It's not easy to find in the states, but many sites suggest light corn syrup with some molasses as a nice substitute.


So this is what I did for the required 18 oz of golden syrup, I used 12 oz light corn syrup, 2 oz of buckwheat honey and 2 oz of molasses. That buckwheat is strong and expensive, so after squeezing about $1.32 into the corn syrup I opted to finish off with less expensive, less pungent molasses.


In the end, I did like the buckwheat honey in the tart, but I'm don't think I'm a tall dark stranger kind of girl.




Here's the recipe, it's adapted from Bakingdom.com



Crust

Prepare the crust first, it will need to rest in the fridge for at least 45 mins. BTW you'll need vodka for the pie dough, it sounds crazy and it is.
Prepare the fool proof pie dough from Cook's Illustrated, roll out and place into a greased tart pan or 9 inch pie plate. Prick the bottom with a fork and freeze for 30 mins, bake for 20 mins at 350 degrees.


Treacle Tart Americana

12 oz. light corn syrup combined with  2 oz. honey* and 4 oz. molasses
2 eggs
finely grated zest and juice of 1 large lemon
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 cup fresh bread crumbs (whole wheat and even multi-grain works)
2-3 pinches of salt (this is literally taking your finger and thumb and pinching some salt and tossing it in)

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and p
our filling into tart/pie pan and finish baking for 30 mins at 350 degress, cool and serve with fresh whipped cream or a drizzle of heavy cream.

*regular honey would be outstanding in this, so I suggest maybe don't go for the tall dark stranger and use a nice, good guy instead.

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