Sunday bakes - 'fright night fun' figgy brown treacle tart

I read an article the other day about brown sauce, it was an abusive piece, lambasting the poor old sauce for being a taste bully. It made me feel a bit defensive of poor old brown sauce, yes sure it's not everyone's cup of tea and generally I only eat it on a full english fry up, but if you look at the ingredients it's really quite an interesting one. It's jam-packed with spices and tamarind sauce and it got me thinking about the other possible ways brown sauce could contribute in my kitchen. 

This weekend I went to Tulleys farm's shocktoberfest, which is hands down my favourite thing to do all year. It's a halloween theme park, with a selection of 'haunts' in an atmospheric setting and I find it both hilarious and terrifying. I went with a couple of friends and my boyfriend so afterwards we curled up in front of a fire with a glass of whiskey and this pie. 

Ingredients
250g plain flour
4tbsp caster sugar
130g butter
350g golden syrup
50g brown sauce
3 ripe fresh figs
150g fine fresh white breadcrumbs
2 lemons
1  egg

Method
First make the pastry. Chop the butter into small cubes and combine with the flour, rub between your fingers to make a fine breadcrumb texture, add the sugar, then add 2 tbsp of cold water, one by one to bring the mixture together. You don't have to add it all. Don't play with the pastry too much, wrap it in cling film and put in the fridge for 20 minutes. 

Pour the liquid ingredients into a pan along with the zest and juice of the two lemons and heat gently. Once this is warmed through add the breadcrumbs and heat for another 5 minutes. 

Roll out the pastry, grease the tart tin and lay 2/3rds of the pastry into the tin. Prick the bottom so it doesn't rise up. Fill the tin with the breadcrumb mix then slice the figs and lay them in a pattern on top. 

Roll out the rest of the pastry and cut into strips of equal width, arrange in a lattice pattern and place on top, pressing into the base pastry along the edges. Make an egg wash and brush all over, bake at 160 for 15 minutes until the crust is golden brown. 

This is surprisingly nice with a good old fashioned custard in front of a fire.