French Orange Cream Tart Rose's Alpha Bakers

                                french orange cream tart 

Dad is running wild: always look forward to the 10pm phone call from the nursing home saying "your Dad is using his walker as a weapon". Dad's kept me busy this week with a trip to hospital plus two falls at the nursing home (he is fine... though I suspect his leaving a trail of staff and residents in his wake), soooo, I'm behind with my usual blog posts but I have finished my bake for Rose's Alpha Bakers. :) 

I'm sure many of you are familiar with (or have eaten 402 slices) of the classic French Tarte Au Citron (Lemon Tart)... today's tart is a lovely alternative to lemon tart using oranges. 

Started by making a template as per instructed by Rose to use as my pastry cutting guide. Hmm, The Simpson's ruler probably belies the sophistication of the tart... but I needed "inch" measurements. 

Thought I should make it food safe, so wrapped in foil. 

Pastry time started with processing the cold butter cubes with raw sugar until the sugar disappeared. 

Flour, cream and egg are added and you have a crumbly mix ready to be turned out and pressed together.

Pastry making always has a touch of alchemy to it, the crumbs from the food processor become "pate sucree pastry" with a few simple presses. 

Ready to roll, between two pieces of lightly floured plastic wrap.

Here comes the bit I have never done before, the pastry with the bottom layer of plastic wrap is draped over the back of a cake tin. 

Then your loose bottomed tart tin is fitted on top and the whole thing is flipped. 

I was wondering why I was doing this instead of chucking the pastry in the tin like I usually do (ok, not chucking, don't chuck... gently placing in the tin) but I "got it", the reason for doing it that is. What you end up with is a perfectly shaped pastry case, with flat bottom and neat corners.

Case is blind baked as per normal. 

The filling is a breeze to make and if you do get little air bubbles on top of your unbaked poured mix, use your gas torch to lightly go over the surface, it will pop all bubbles before it goes in the oven.   Ha, my filling is almost neon orange thanks to local free range eggs that had the brightest yolks I have ever seen!

After baking and chilling it's time to fire up the torch it's time to brûlée. A local cafe uses the term "burnished" when they are talking about their lemon tart "burnished lemon tart" and that's really what the finish is like on this tart. Only a few teaspoons of icing sugar is used/brûléed to become a whisper thin burnished sugar finish.

A small amount of icing sugar is applied and torched, after a brief chilling a second small amount is sifted over torched. I thought at first it the sugar wasn't going to caramelise, but it's just a matter of holding the torch a little closer and a little longer in one spot than you think.   

I choose not the neatest tart slice today, but rather a shot of where the icing sugar was a little thick... you can see on slicing the sugar lifting. You don't want the pretty, delicate appearance of the tart spoilt ... although I did crave the "burnt sugar" crust that the word brûlée evokes. 

The accidental misfire photograph of the tart shows the light shining through the pastry. Dang, this is the thinnest prettiest pastry case I have ever made!!! 

Would I bake again? Yes, I'm going to bake for Christmas this year I do love "Christmas/oranges". I'll skip the torching and go for snow sugar and red currants to decorate. 

Would I make any changes? perhaps check the bitterness or not of the zest before I used it. The recipe has a little lemon zest and I forgot how bitter my backyard lemons are! A little bit of bitter aftertaste in an otherwise perfect tart. 

How it works... now I've joined the fabulous existing alpha bakers, once a week I will post about what I have baked from Rose Levy Beranbaum's 'The Baking Bible'. This won't include the recipe due to copyright and publisher restrictions however, I will be posting how it went and photos of making/baking the gorgeous baked goods.

The Baking Bible

Happy Baking :)

You might also like Fruit Curd recipes 

 

Cherry Eton Mess

cherry eton mess

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Tis the time for lots of macaron's that haven't quite "footed" and meringues that didn't quite, ummm "meringue?". What to do? Why make Eton Mess for dessert of course.

Eton mess is a traditional English dessert consisting of a mixture of strawberries, pieces of meringue and cream, which is traditionally served at Eton College's annual cricket game against the students of Harrow School. wikipedia

Oh my, I couldn't resist the boxes brimming with sweet dark cherries that fill the Australian fruit shops in December, plus I had macarons "oddments" and end of batch meringes from Christmas gift baking. So lets make a delightful mess... albeit a bit "girlie" today, I'm afraid I went too far with the 100's and 1000's (nonpareils).

Cherry Eton Mess 

(by all means go traditional and use strawberries instead if preferred) 

Ingredients 

*2 cups of chilled whipping cream

2 tablespoons of sugar

1 vanilla pod scraped of seeds (use vanilla extract to taste if you don't have pods)

700 grams (25oz) of fresh cherries 

leftover macaron shells, meringue pieces or buy a packet of meringue shells

Method

Pit most of the cherries, leaving a few whole ones for decoration. Place the pitted cherries and one tablespoon of the sugar in a small bowl and give the mixture a gentle squeeze to release a little of cherry juice, stir to combine. Refrigerate until serving time.

Whip the cream, with the remaining one tablespoon of sugar and seeds from the vanilla pod until soft peaks form. Refrigerate until serving time.

Assembly

When you're ready to serve, in no particular order, spoon cream, cherries, broken pieces of meringues and macaron's into serving glasses. 

Top with whole cherries dipped in melted white chocolate if desired. 

*variations; try adding plain yoghurt or creme fraiche to the whipping cream. I often use 1 1/2 cream to half yoghurt, it will lighten the mouth feel and is more refreshing in summer. 

Macerate the cherries or strawberries with sugar and a juice or alcohol of choice before assembling, brandy, grand marnier or a favourite dessert wine are good choices.

Have fun and happy baking :)

Want to make your own meringues? Here is a recipe for 4 individual pavlova shells that you can break up for your Eton Mess... omit or change colour as desired. 

More desserts in glasses? How about Peach Verrines in Minutes

More cherries? A quick cherry cupcake decoration

                      Snow Cherries

Dreams of Chocolate Cream

'dreams of chocolate cream cupcake' featuring chocolate shells with three chocolate creams

Often overlooked for more complex frostings & fillings, Chocolate cream is versatile & easy, whether it's beaten to stiff peaks, piped or plopped, flavoured or boozy. Try topping your next pavlova with clouds of chocolate cream & chocolate dipped strawberries, as a filling for your layer cakes, a plop of chocolate liqueur cream in your cup of hot chocolate or just as a quick piped topping on your favourite chocolate cupcake. 

All the chocolate creams start with chilling your large mixing bowl and beaters for 15 minutes prior to commencing. I use caster sugar to sweeten the cream, but by all means just use regular granulated sugar if you prefer. Whipping cream in Australia is sold in 300ml (approx. 10 fluid oz) bottles as "thickened cream". 

1. CHOCOLATE CREAM with grated chocolate

300ml (10 fluid oz) thickened/whipping cream 

1/2 tsp pure vanilla essence/extract

1 tablespoon of caster sugar (or to taste)

50g (1.7oz) Milk or Dark eating chocolate, grated

Place cream, vanilla & sugar into your mixing bowl. Stir to combine. Whip until soft peaks form, add grated chocolate and continue beating to desired stiffness.

2. CHOCOLATE CREAM with cocoa

300ml (10 fluid oz) thickened/whipping cream

1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder (preferably dutch processed cocoa)

2 1/2 tablespoons caster sugar (superfine)

1/2 tsp pure vanilla essence/extract

boiling water

In a small bowl mix cocoa powder and enough boiling water to create a smooth paste, set aside. Place cream, vanilla & sugar into your mixing bowl. Stir to combine. Whip until soft peaks form, add cooled cocoa paste and continue beating to desired stiffness.

3. CHOCOLATE CREAM with melted chocolate (my favourite for piping)

300ml (10 fluid oz) thickened whipping cream

60 grams (2oz) dark, milk or white eating chocolate, melted

1 tablespoon caster sugar or to taste

1/2 tsp pure vanilla essence/extract

Place cream, vanilla & sugar into your mixing bowl. Stir to combine. Whip until soft peaks form, add cooled melted chocolate and continue beating to desired stiffness.

Variations;

For boozy chocolate cream omit vanilla from recipe add one to two tablespoon of chocolate, mint or orange liqueur, rum or brandy to the above recipes... beating in after the cream reaches the soft peak stage.  

Flavours... omit vanilla from recipe,  replace with essence/extract flavour of choice or replace melted plain melted chocolate with a flavoured variety.

So fill those cupcakes, pipe those pastries, top those strawberries, layer it up or make that sundae and start dreaming up more ideas for your chocolate cream. 

Happy baking :)

Now your thinking of chocolate you might also like...

 Baci Chocolate ice-cream