Golden Syrup & Treacle

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  Golden syrup (light treacle)

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  Treacle (less dark than dark treacle)

Treacle is very sticky, honey-like syrup with a caramel flavor. It is commonly used in English recipes and comes in various forms, such as light treacle (also known as golden syrup) and dark treacle (or molasses), differing based on the level of caramelisation. Dark treacle has a light bitter taste.

In this recipe, treacle is made by heating sugar with water, turning the sucrose in the sugar to glucose and fructose. The addition of lemon or lemon juice helps to speed up this reaction.

I started on this because I wanted to make brandy snaps to pair with ice cream and needed the golden syrup for it. After a couple of Google searches, I thought, why not try it out myself? For the first attempt, I cooked the sugars for too long and ended up with treacle instead. But later realised that it goes well with scones and rye bread as well (see this recipe for rye with treacle). See here for recipes with golden syrup and recipes with treacle.

CAUTION: For this recipe, you will have to heat sugar to very high temperatures of ~150 deg celsius. Also the sugar may bubble or splatter, so use a pot and not a pan (i.e. high enough sides). A heavy bottom pot is the best, to ensure even heating and so the sugars don’t burn too fast.

Recipe from Steve’s Kitchen, adapted for a very small quantity. The syrup tends to still caramelize slightly after the addition of lemon, which may be due to the small quantity made. It also gets cooked faster.

Makes ~125g of golden syrup or treacle.

Ingredients:

• 20g sugar
• 6g water (a bit over a teaspoon)
• 100g sugar
• 60g boiling water (approximately)
• A small lemon slice

Instructions:

1. Place 20g of sugar in the middle of a heavy bottom pot and pour the 6g of water directly over the sugar, so most of the sugar is covered by it.

2. Place the sugar on low heat and do not mix it (or it may start to crystallize). It will start to bubble and after ~5-7 minutes, the sugar will start turning brown rather quickly.
3. For golden syrup, go to the next step once the sugar turns a very faint yellow (nearly immediately when the colour changes). For treacle, wait for the sugar to turn a deeper golden colour. (Note that the syrup will continue to darken more after this step.)

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  For golden syrup, stop before this stage. For treacle wait for the sugar to turn darker.

4. Carefully add the boiling water into the hot sugar. This will splutter, so add it slowly. Add the rest of the sugar and the slice of lemon.
5. Keep the syrup at low heat, at a light simmer, for around 30min.

6. After 20-30min, or if the syrup is getting too dark, check the consistency of the syrup by dripping one drop onto a cool metal plate. (The syrup thickens as it cools.) Use a spoon to test whether the drop is too liquidy or too hard. (Be careful the drop of syrup is also hot!)
   • If too liquidy, cook for a longer time to boil away the excess water.
   • If too hard, add a bit more boiling water.
7. When you are happy with the consistency, remove the lemon slice and pour the syrup into a jar while it is still warm.