daring bakers: blood orange tian

The 2010 March Daring Baker’s challenge was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings. She chose orange tian as the challenge for this month, a dessert based on a recipe from Alain Ducasse’s Cooking School in Paris.

This is my first Daring Bakers challenge, and it was a lot of fun. I had never heard of a tian before. The dessert is a pate sablee spread with orange marmalade and covered with whipped cream, orange segments, and orange caramel. This was a nice dessert, but it needs a little punch. If I made it again, I'd use a cream cheese-whipped cream mixture instead of plain whipped cream.

I decided to make mine with blood oranges. I think they're beautiful, and I especially love the way they look like jelly candy when you slice them.

I've made pate sablee before, so making it was a snap (especially now that my grocery store carries almond flour). The marmalade was easy as well, and unusually tasty. I was out of pectin, so I used some gelatine to set the marmalade. Too much gelatine, as it turned out. My delicious marmalade turned into delicious blood orange jello. I snacked on a little of it and threw the rest in the food processor with hot water until it was spreadable.

I was excited that Jennifer included a recipe for stabilized whipped cream, because I've always had trouble making it, even when I follow the recipes in my cookbooks exactly. Apparently the gelatine requires a lot more water than my other recipes suggested. This time, it worked perfectly--no horrible gelatine chunks to be strained out of my whipped cream.

I had a little trouble with the caramel. The sugar seized when I added the orange juice. I had to take the pan off the heat and keep reheating the juice and pouring it over the sugar until most of it mixed together. Then I moved it to a different pan to thicken it.

Segmenting the oranges was the hardest part for me. Thank goodness Jennifer gave us a link on how to do it. Even with great instructions, it took me forever to segment the oranges. After soaking them in the caramel and draining them, I put the soaking caramel back in with the rest so I could have extra sauce.

The upside-down assembly was fun. I broke my crust trying to assemble the dessert, but you couldn't really tell once it was all together.

blood orange tian (adapted from Alain Ducasse’s Cooking School)

pate sablee
2 medium-sized egg yolks, room temperature
6 TB + 1 tsp sugar
½ tsp vanilla
¼ C + 3 TB unsalted butter, ice cold, cubed
1/3 tsp salt
1.5 C + 2 TB flour
1 tsp baking powder

Put the flour, baking powder, ice cold cubed butter and salt in a food processor fitted with a steel blade.

In a separate bowl, add the eggs yolks, vanilla extract and sugar and beat with a whisk until the mixture is pale. Pour the egg mixture in the food processor.

Process until the dough just comes together. If you find that the dough is still a little too crumbly to come together, add a couple drops of water and process again to form a homogeneous ball of dough. Form into a disc, cover with plastic wrap and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit.

Pat the dough onto the bottom of a parchment-paper-lined 9" springform pan until you have a .25"-thick circle.

Bake for 20 minutes or until the circles of dough are just golden.


blood orange marmalade

.25 C + 3 TB fresh blood orange juice
1 large orange (to make orange slices)
cold water
5 g pectin
granulated sugar: use the same weight as the weight of orange slices once they are cooked

Finely slice the orange. Place the orange slices in a medium-sized pot filled with cold water. Simmer for about 10 minutes, discard the water, re-fill with cold water and blanch the oranges for another 10 minutes.

Blanch the orange slices 3 times. This process removes the bitterness from the orange peel, so it is essential to use a new batch of cold water every time when you blanch the slices.

Once blanched 3 times, drain the slices and let them cool.

Once they are cool enough to handle, finely mince them (using a knife or a food processor).

Weigh the slices and use the same amount of granulated sugar. If you don’t have a scale, you can place the slices in a cup measurer and use the same amount of sugar.

In a pot over medium heat, add the minced orange slices, the sugar you just weighed, the orange juice and the pectin. Cook until the mixture reaches a jam consistency (10-15 minutes).

Transfer to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge.

blood orange segments:
8 blood oranges

Cut the oranges into segments over a shallow bowl and make sure to keep the juice. Add the segments to the bowl with the juice.


blood orange caramel:
1 C sugar
1.5 C + 2 TB blood orange juice

Place the sugar in a pan on medium heat and begin heating it.

Once the sugar starts to bubble and foam, slowly add the orange juice. As soon as the mixture starts boiling, remove from the heat and pour half of the mixture over the orange segments.

Reserve the other half of the caramel mixture in a small bowl — you will use this later to spoon over the finished dessert. When the dessert is assembled and setting in the freezer, heat the kept caramel sauce in a small saucepan over low heat until it thickens and just coats the back of a spoon (about 10 minutes). You can then spoon it over the orange tians.


stabilized whipped cream with marmalade:
1 C heavy whipping cream 1 cup
3 TB hot water
1 tsp gelatine
1 TB confectioner's sugar
1 TB orange marmalade (see recipe above)

In a small bowl, add the gelatine and hot water, stirring well until the gelatine dissolves. Let the gelatine cool to room temperature while you make the whipped cream. Combine the cream in a chilled mixing bowl. Whip the cream using a hand mixer on low speed until the cream starts to thicken for about one minute. Add the confectioner's sugar. Increase the speed to medium-high. Whip the cream until the beaters leave visible (but not lasting) trails in the cream, then add the cooled gelatine slowly while beating continuously. Continue whipping until the cream is light and fluffy and forms soft peaks. Transfer the whipped cream to a bowl and fold in the orange marmalade.


assembly:
Make sure you have some room in your freezer. Ideally, you should be able to fit a small baking sheet or tray of desserts to set in the freezer.

Line a small tray or baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone sheet. Lay out 6 cookie cutters onto the parchment paper/silicone.

Drain the orange segments on a kitchen towel.

Have the marmalade, whipped cream and baked circles of dough ready to use.

Arrange the orange segments at the bottom of each cookie cutter. Make sure the segments all touch either and that there are no gaps. Make sure they fit snuggly and look pretty as they will end up being the top of the dessert. Arrange them as you would sliced apples when making an apple tart.

Once you have neatly arranged one layer of orange segments at the bottom of each cookie cutter, add a couple spoonfuls of whipped cream and gently spread it so that it fills the cookie cutter in an even layer. Leave about 1/4 inch at the top so there is room for dough circle.

Using a butter knife or small spoon, spread a small even layer of orange marmalade on each circle of dough.

Carefully place a circle of dough over each ring (the side of dough covered in marmalade should be the side touching the whipping cream). Gently press on the circle of dough to make sure the dessert is compact.

Place the desserts to set in the freezer to set for 10 minutes.

Using a small knife, gently go around the edges of the cookie cutter to make sure the dessert will be easy to unmold. Gently place your serving plate on top of a dessert (on top of the circle of dough) and turn the plate over. Gently remove the cookie cutter, add a spoonful of caramel sauce and serve immediately.

olive oil and balsamic vinegar ice cream

A few years ago, one of my foodie friends told me that she and her husband had fond memories of an olive oil ice cream served for dessert on an out-of-state trip they'd taken. A the time I thought it sounded a little odd, something I'd probably not be interested in. But B has a crazy olive-oil-and-vinegar obsession, and when he recently started getting his fix by swirling oil and vinegar in a glass and drinking them straight, I thought, there's got to be a better way to do this. And I remembered K's olive oil ice cream. I headed to the internet, and found a promising recipe at the Worldwide Gourmet.

Although I'd rate the recipe as easy on the whole, the directions were a little confusing for someone with as little ice-cream making experience as I have. I haven't made a lot of custard bases, and I curdled my first batch. This made B ridiculously happy because we strained out the clumpy bits and he drank the custard and dunked French bread in it. I also had a bit of weirdness with trying to fold the cream into the anglaise. There's a *lot* of custard, and it sort of dissolved the whipped cream, leaving a few bits of whipped cream unincorporated. I'll play with this next time to see if I can get it mixed smoothly.

Now, if you're anything like my friends, this recipe may be inspiring a lot of hate. I know it isn't exactly a standard flavor, but I wasn't expecting so many of the people I talked to about it to dislike the idea so much. If you're leaning this direction, I have good news for you--you're wrong. This is one of best ice creams we've eaten. I loved it, the one friend who actually tasted it loved it, and B loved it. Enough to go back for more every night. (With B, this is the equivalent of an 15-out-of-10-star rating. He does *not* go looking for dessert. If I buy his usual favorite, strawberry ice cream, it will sit in the freezer for two months before he'll consider eating it. And he loves it.) The olive oil and balsamic are there, but they're quite subtle. If I didn't know what I was eating, I wouldn't guess olive oil and vinegar. The custard base is incredibly rich, as it should be with ten egg yolks, and the oil and vinegar complement it nicely. The final product is a beautiful custard color.

At some point, I want to try making a savory version of the ice cream, where the oil and vinegar are more noticeable, but it's hard to really think about tinkering with this recipe when it's perfect. The finished ice cream was a little bit icy in texture, but based on results making other ice creams, that seems to be a problem with our machine and not the recipe. (If you have any recommendations for a really good ice cream maker, I'd love to hear them.)

Now for the best ice cream recipe ever. Go make yourself a batch. You deserve it.

olive oil and balsamic vinegar ice cream (from The Worldwide Gourmet)

4 C milk
10 egg yolks
9 oz. sugar
9 oz. cream
3 TB olive oil (I used a robust oil to be sure the flavor would show up.)
2 tsp balsamic vinegar

Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar. Heat the milk. (I don't know how hot it's supposed to be; I'd recommend checking your favorite liquid custard recipe.) Temper the egg mixture with some of the hot milk. Whisk the remaining hot milk into the eggs and transfer to a heavy saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until mixture thickens slightly to form a creme anglaise. Do not overheat or the eggs will curdle.

Cool custard to lukewarm. Whip the cream and fold it into the creme anglaise. Add the olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Put in ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer's instructions. Devour.

devilish chocolate roulade

I made these for holiday dinner with my family. We enjoyed them, but they were a little too rich for me. I think perhaps the "plain chocolate" was supposed to have been milk chocolate, but I used dark. I make this again, I'll either omit the chocolate filling entirely, or make it with milk chocolate and use half as much, and I would increase the mascarpone.















devilish chocolate roulade (from Chocolate, Christine France)

roulade:
6 oz dark chocolate, broken into squares
4 eggs, separated
1/2 C baking sugar
cocoa powder for dusting

filling:
8 oz. plain chocolate, broken into squares
2 eggs, separated
generous 1 C mascarpone

(The recipe also called for brandy in the chocolate filling and for chocolate-dipped strawberries for decoration; I omitted these because I didn't have brandy or strawberries on hand.)


Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a 13 x 9" Swiss roll pan and line with parchment paper. Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl.

Whisk the egg yolks and sugar ina bowl until pale and thick, then stir in the melted chocolate evenly.

Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks, then fold lightly and evenly into the egg and chocolate mixture.

Scrape into the pan and spread evenly to the corners. Bake for 15-20 min., until the sponge is well risen and firm to the touch. Dust a sheet of parchment paper with cocoa. Turn the sponge out on the paper, cover with a clean dish towel, and leave to cool.

Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over hot water. Remove from the heat. Beat the egg yolks together, then beat into the chocolate mixture. In a separate bowl,a whisk the whites to soft peaks, then fold them lightly and evenly into the filling.

Uncover the roulade, remove the lining paper and spread with the mascarpone. Spread the chocolate mixture over the top, then roll up carefully from a long side to enclose the filling. Transfer to a serving plate and dust with cocoa powder.

prickly pear mousse

I made this because B loved a prickly pear smoothie mix that he found in the cupboard. Looking through our cupboards is not unlike going on an archeological dig. I buy things that I have no idea how I'll use and I can't bear to throw away anything interesting or potentially useful. So, you can look and find gravy mixes from when my great-grandmother died and I inherited half her pantry and spices I received third-hand when a friend moved to California. The prickly pear smoothie mix was from a fundraiser seven years ago. Which is to say that when the small box ran out, I had no idea how to get more. But our grocery store carries prickly pears, so I decided it would be fun to make something with them. A mousse seemed like the best way to ensure that the prickly pears' flavor wasn't overwhelmed.

It turned out to be pretty good, although it was quite time consuming to process the pears. (If anyone has tips on processing prickly pears, I'd love to hear them.) And next time it will take even longer, because I'll use more prickly pears.

prickly pear mousse

5 prickly pears

2 C heavy cream, chilled

2 egg whites

1/8-1/4 C sugar

Peel the prickly pears, using caution and/or gloves. Even though most of the spines are removed from those sold in stores, I still managed to get on in my hand, and because it was so tiny, it was hard to find and remove.

Mash through a strainer, saving juice and discarding seeds. I used my pestle with the strainer for this.

Reduce juice (I started with around 1.5 C) to around 1/4 C. (I reduced mine in two batches; the first I reduced too far--it was a thick paste--and the second I left more watery. Next time, I'll shoot for a nice syrupy reduction.)

Whip cream to stiff peaks, adding half of sugar when soft peaks are reached. Mix in prickly pear reduction. Whip egg whites to stiff peaks, again adding sugar when soft peaks are reached. Lightly fold into whipped cream mixture.

We ate our mousse immediately; I don't know how well it keeps.

lentil soup

A few weeks ago, B convinced me to try some of Amy's Organic Lentil Soup. It was a hard sell, because lentil soup is ugly. It isn't just plain jane- or ugly betty-ugly. It's hideous

brunehilda-ugly. Lentils aren't just badly dressed but secretly beautiful. Designer clothes, a

makeover, and losing the tacky glasses won't save this dish. There's no recovering from looking like something the dog has already digested. And to top it off, this stuff smells a little bad. But underneath the ugly is an amazing soup. Healthy, filling, and delicious. I fell in love.

Unfortunately, Costco only carries it packaged with an equal amount of minestrone, and while Amy's minestrone is fine, it just can't compare to the recipe we make. So, after reading the back of the soup can and looking up a few recipes online, I threw this together. And I think it's as good as Amy's.

A couple of things: If the soup doesn't taste good, add more salt. Seriously. Salt makes all the difference with this soup. And when you puree, use the blender and not your food processor. It's a real pain to get all the little bits of lentil out of the inside of the blade of the food processor afterward.

lentil soup

5 C dried lentils

2 ribs celery, sliced very thin

carrots, sliced thin (about same amount as celery)

1 large russet potato, peeled and chopped small

1/2 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp cumin

salt, to taste

Put lentils in pot; cover with about an inch of water. Bring to a boil, then turn heat down to medium. Add vegetables and spices. Simmer, stirring and adding more water occasionally. When lentils are soft and you are happy with the amount of liquid, turn off the heat. (This will be fairly thick soup.) Take a few cups of the soup and puree them in the blender. Add back to the soup. Salt to taste.

peach pie and fruit theft

It amazes me, the entitlement people feel toward other people's fruit trees. People who would never dream of stealing so much as a pen think nothing of snatching the tempting fruits of their neighbors' trees. About a year ago, I was reading a popular food blog. The author had posted about fruit was falling to the ground from a neighbor's tree in copious amounts and was apparently going to be wasted. The author confessed to going climbing into the neighbor's yard and taking the fruit. This elicited a barrage of comments from like-minded readers, patting themselves on the back for preventing precious fruit from going to waste. One even had the audacity to strip a neighbor's tree without permission and then present the neighbor with a jar of jam, as though that made up for the theft. (Apparently the neighbors were, in fact, forgiving.)

I was angry when I read the post and the comments, joking about and justifying such theft. But I refrained from commenting because I hadn't commented on the blog reguarly, and I don't like my only comments to be critical. If the negative things on a blog compell me to post more than the positive ones, I just stop reading.

But now I wish I had. Last summer we were delighted to discover that our new home has a peach tree. And the peaches on this tree are the best we've ever tasted. So good that even I, mistrustful of peaches after a childhood of eating far too many canned ones, have looked forward to our peach harvest since January. When the peaches were finally ripe, I put off picking them because I was dismayed by the strange spots they all had. I didn't want to face the possibility that they could be bad. And because we just had a baby, and it has been no small adjustment. Finding even the little time needed to pick the fruit felt overwhelming.

So, the peaches were starting to fall. My husband wanted to eat them, spots notwithstanding. And I, remembering that blogger's post, decided the day had come to pick the fruit regardless of
whether we were actually going to use it. If it was good, we would celebrate with pies and cobblers. If it wasn't, I would prevent any passersby from feeling entitled to take our fruit next year on the mistaken idea that we had wasted it this year. I had a busy day running errands (everything takes so much longer when there's a baby involved), and at night, remembered my
peaches. When I went outside, I discovered that someone had stolen our peaches. Every last one.

I was devastated. We hung a sign on the tree, begging for the return of our fruit. But to no avail. So, I'll say to the internets what I wish I could say to the peach thief: Just because the fruit hasn't been picked yet doesn't mean it won't be. And even if it isn't, even if the fruit rots on the ground, that doesn't justify you in trespassing or stealing from your neighbors. Most of you wouldn't sneak into someone's house to take leftovers out of their fridge to prevent food from wasting, and it's no more your business if they choose to waste their fruit. Either get permission to pick or pony up the dough and go buy your own fruit. Chances are, if your neighbor has a tree, there's a fruit stand selling the same thing. And chances are, if your neighbor isn't going to use the fruit, they'll happily share. We can't give the fruit from our other trees away fast enough. Ask about our cherries or our pears, and the answer will be please, take more! We can't use it all, and it's a shame to waste it. We are delighted to be able to share, and we are all the more delighted that people are considerate enough to ask instead of just taking what is easily in reach.

So--if it's not yours, don't take it.

And now, for the peach pie. We resorted to buying our peaches from a local stand this year, and they were quite good, if not as good as our own peaches would have been. B's father was visiting and peach pie is his favorite, so B asked me to make one for him. I haven't made many pies and the crusts I've tried have been hit-and-miss. So I was excited to try the Best American Classics version. And my excitement was completely justified. This pie was amazing. I'll be making it every year now, and I can't wait to use the crust for a sour cherry pie, too. I made two pies, one with almond extract and one without. Somehow, even though I used the same peaches for both pies, the peaches in the pie without the extract were juicier and created a bit of a flood. The pie was still good, though a bit soggy.

lattice-top peach pie (from New Best Recipes, editors of Cook's Illustrated)

1 recipe pie dough for lattice-top pie

flour for dusting the work surface

6-7 medium, ripe peaches (about 7 C sliced)

1 TB juice from 1 lemon

1 C (7 oz.) + 1 TB sugar

pinch ground cinnamon

pinch freshly grated nutmeg

pinch salt

3-5 TB potato starch or Minute tapioca

*I added about 1 TB almond extract

Remove the dough from the refrigerator (if refrigerated longer than 1 hour, let stand at room temperature until malleable). roll the larger piece of dough to a 15 x 11" rectangle about 1/8" thick; transfer the dough rectangle to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. With a pizza wheel, fluted pastry wheel, or paring knife, trim the long sides of the rectangle to make them straight, then cut the rectangle lengthwise into 8 strips 15" long by 1 1/4" wide. Freeze the strips on the baking sheet until firm, about 30 minutes.

Following the illustrations on page 884, roll the smaller piece of dough on a lightly floured work surface or between 2 large sheets of parchment paper or plastic wrap to a 12" circle. Transfer the dough to a 9" pie plate by rolling the dough arounda rolling pin and unrolling it over the pan. Working around the circumference of the pan, ease the dough into the pan corners by gently lifting the edge of the dough with one hand while pressinag it into the pan bottom with the other hand. leave the dough that overhangs the lip of the pie plate in place; refrigerate the dough-line pie plate.

Remove the dough strips from the freezer; if theya re too stiff to e workable, let them stand at room temperature until malleable and softened slightly but still very cold. Form the lattice top and place in the freezer until firm, about 15 minutes.

Adjust an oven rack to the lowest position, place a rimmed baking sheet on it, and heat the oven to 500 degrees. Bring 3 quarts water to a boil in a large saucepan and fill a large bowl with 2 quarts cold water and 2 trays ice cubes. Score an X in the bottom of each peach and simmer in the boiling water 30-60 seconds, depending on the peaches' ripeness. Transfer peaches to ice water and let stand about 1 minute to stop the cooking process. Starting from the X, peel the peach, using a paring knife to lift the skin off in strips. [I skipped this step, peeling my peaches with a vegetable peeling. I'll probably try this next time, as my way took forever.] Halve and pit each peeled peach and cut into 3/8" slices.

Toss the peach slices, lemon juice, 1 C sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and potato starch into a medium bowl.

Turn the peach mixture into the dough-lined pie plate. Remove the lattice from the freezer and place on top of the filled pie. Trim the lattice strips and crimp the pie edges. Lightly brush or spray the lattice top with 1 TB water and sprinkle with the remaining 1 TB sugar.

Lower the oven temperature to 425 F. Place the pie on the baking sheet and bake until the crust is set and begins to brown, 25-30 minutes. Rotate the pie and reduce the oven temperature to 375 F. Continue baking until the crust is deep golden brown and the juices bubble, 25-30 minutes longer. Cool the pie on a wire rack at least 2 hours before serving.

basic pie dough, lattice-top variation (New Best Recipes)

3 C flour (15 oz)

1 tsp salt

2 TB sugar

7 TB vegetable shortening, chilled [I used butter-flavored]

10 TB cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4" pieces

10 TB ice water

Process the flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor until combined. Add the shortening and process until the mixture has the texture of coarse sand, about 10 seconds. Scatter the butter pieces over the flour mixture; cut the butter into the flour until the mixture is pale yellow and resembles coarse crumbs, with butter bits no larger than small peas, about ten 1-second pulses. Turn the mixture into a medium bowl.

Sprinkle the ice water oer the mixture. With a rubber spatula, use a folding motion to mix. Press down on the dough with the broad side of the spatula until the dough sticks together. Divide the dough into 2 balls and flatten each into a 4" disk. Wrap in palstic and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 2 days before rolling.

key lime cupcakes

My family and I have quite the sweet tooth (teeth?), so when we get together, someone frequently ends up baking dessert. One brother does pies, another has taken over Dad's fudge recipe, though Dad occasionally makes it himself, with mini-M&Ms thrown in while it's still hot. My mom and my sisters and I do the brownies, cookies, and cakes.

However, thus far, only the pie brother is willing to spend the hours baking that result in the kinds of desserts that I love. (We once created a rose cake together that will live forever in infamy. Improvisation in the kitchen, admittedly, has not been my strong point.) So when I bake with my sisters, I try to find simpler recipes that we can make together, so I can slowly convince them of the superiority of from-scratch recipes that don't require half a day to make.

So last time we were all craving dessert, I suggested we try these. We made my favorite yellow cupcake recipe (from New Best Recipes)--quick and no fail. And then we mixed up a batch of key lime pie filling and threw it into the cupcakes. Easy and delicious. You don't even need frosting. B thought they were too sticky and continues to disparage them, but my family and I loved them. If you find them too sticky as well, you could up the liminess of the cupcakes by using more zest and decrease the filling. Or you could use the cone method to fill the cupcakes after baking, if you don't mind raw eggs.

key lime cupcakes
yellow cupcakes: (modified from The New Best Recipes, editors of Cook's Illustrated)
1.5 C unbleached all-purpose flour
1 C sugar
1.5 tsp baking powder
.5 tsp salt
8 TB unsalted butter, softened
.5 C sour cream
1 large egg, plus 2 yolks, at room temperature
2 TB key lime juice
grated lime zest

key lime filling (from epicurious.com):
14 oz. sweetened condensed milk
4 large egg yolks
.5 C + 2 TB key lime juice

Preheat oven to 350. Grease muffin tins and line with muffin cups.

Mix dry ingredients. Add butter, sour cream, egg, yolks, lime juice, and zest, and beat until smooth and satiny, about 30 seconds. Scrape sides of bowl with rubber spatula and stir by hand until smooth and no flour pockets remain.

Whisk together sweetened condensed milk and egg yolks until combined well. Add lime juice and whisk until combined well.

Divide half of cupcake batter amount muffin tins. Add a generous helping of key lime filling to each tin, and cover with more cupcake batter. Bake as appropriate for size of cupcakes. (You may need to bake slightly longer because of filling.)