Book of Days Tales

Today is Oxfordshire Day, celebrated to promote the English county of Oxfordshire. It is also the principal feast day of the patron saint of the city and university of Oxford, St Frideswide. The commemoration of St Frideswide’s Day was encouraged in the nineteenth century by Henry Liddell, dean of Christ Church (father of Alice Liddell of Lewis Carroll fame). The feast day now appears in the calendar of the Diocese of Oxford. Each year there is a civic service to celebrate St Frideswide’s Day in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, which houses her shrine. St Frideswide (c. 650 – 19 October 727; Old English: Friðuswiþ; also known as Saint Frithuswith, Frideswith, Fritheswithe, Frevisse, or simply Fris) was an English princess and abbess. She is credited with establishing a religious site later incorporated into Christ Church in Oxford — Frideswide/Frithuswith was the first abbess of this Oxford double monastery. She was the daughter of a Mercian sub-king named Dida of Eynsham, whose lands occupied western Oxfordshire and the upper reaches of the Thames. Dida is known to have endowed churches in Bampton and Oxford.

In art, Frideswide is depicted holding the pastoral staff of an abbess, a fountain springing up near her and an ox at her feet. The fountain probably represents the holy well at Binsey which is known as the Treacle Well from the Middle English “triacle” meaning a healing balm or salve.  According to her vita from the 12^th century she caused the fountain to bubble up from the ground and used the waters to heal the sick who came to her.

The Treacle Well is depicted in  Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, as a place where three little sisters lived, sustained only by treacle.  Therefore we have to have a recipe for English treacle tart:

Ingredients

For the pastry

225 gm/8oz plain flour, plus extra for dusting

110 gm/4oz butter, chilled, diced

1 medium free-range egg, lightly beaten

For the filling

450 gm/1lb golden syrup

85 gm/3oz fresh breadcrumbs

generous pinch ground ginger

1 lemon, zest, finely grated and 2 tbsp of the juice

To serve

clotted cream (preferably) or double cream

Instructions

In a bowl, rub the butter into the flour with your fingers until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Mix in the egg with a knife, then knead on a clean, lightly dusted work surface to form a smooth dough.

Use the dough to line a 23cm/9in loose-bottomed tart tin, prick the base all over with a fork and leave to rest in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 190° C/375° F

Line the pastry with parchment paper and weigh down with rice or ceramic baking beans. Bake the pastry blind for 10-15 minutes, remove the paper and rice or beans and return the pastry case to the oven for a few minutes more, until light golden-brown.

For the filling, mix together the filling ingredients in a bowl and pour into the pastry case. Return to the oven and bake for about 30 minutes. Serve hot or cold with clotted cream or double cream.