Blood Oranges – Rosemary and the Goat

Rustic Citrus Almond Tart

Rustic and beautiful citrus tart.

All I can say is “wow”, this was one beautiful tart. Not too tart and not too sweet, as Goldilocks said “it was just right” and I think all the ladies that tried it at my craft circle enjoyed it.

I’m sure you have all heard that snapping turtles bite and don’t let go. In Alabama they use to (may still do) call a snapping turtle “thunder turtles” because they believed that once bitten by the ST that it would not let go until it thundered. So, what does a snapping turtle have to do with this recipe.

Well, I have a problem letting go of an idea for a recipe I’ve seen or a product I have not used before. See the chunky sugar on the above tart. Well there’s even a story there. While in France back in 2012 (see, I told you I hold on to an idea for a long time) we spent a week in Provence after doing Paris (liked Provence much better) and we stayed in Eygalières in Provence area. This little commune, town, or whatever they call a town less than 1,700 actually had two bakeries a couple of grocery stores (very small, one English-speaking the other not) and one very good restaurant, sous les micocouliers which we ate at our first night there. I still get emails from them with their menus and I can’t read a word of it. (I just looked at their website and I never noticed they have “English” version.)

So, back to the story about the sugar. Every morning we would walk down to one of the local bakeries and buy some beautiful and delicious pastries (see below) for breakfast before heading out for the day. Usually at least a couple of the things we purchased had this sugar that stayed chunky. I couldn’t find it in the small local market but when I came home I looked until I finally located it I think on Amazon (of course). The sugar has been sitting in my pantry since then just waiting to be used for something special. This sugar will not melt and disappear as normal granulated sugar does at baking temperatures. I want to try it on some cinnamon elephant ear pastries sometime soon.

March 10, 2016 By Sherry

Dessert/ Pies/Tarts

Orange Tian

Uh oh, here comes another one of those challenges! and this one I’m definitely doing again.

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.

We have a neighbor who is always bringing us things to try. We get vension when he goes deer hunting, country ham when he goes back to Kentucky for a visit and this trip when they came back from South Texas we received a bowlful of oranges. Since this challenge involves oranges, I though I would put these fresh oranges to work and take them a big piece of this dessert.

I have to admit, I have never heard of an Orange Tian. If you have, then you are one step ahead of me. This challenge involved make a pate sable (crust), orange marmalade, segmenting oranges, making a caramel sauce, and doing a whipped cream where you mix in gelatin. I decided to do mine in these cute little tart pans that have been gathering dust in my pantry.

I am doing a technique class at Williams Sonoma tomorrow on pie crust. I’m not doing the pate sable crust but we are doing a pate brisee and pate sucre and a crust made with saltine crackers. I have never heard of the pate sable crust but after studying up on what I’m going to be making in class found out that the sable crust has a lot more sugar and the sucre crust. I makes it more like a cookie crust.

After making this dessert I knew I would be making it again. It was/is a beautiful dessert. It can defnitely be made in stages. The crust could be made days in advance and frozen. The orange marmalade can be done in advance and putting it together is a breeze.

March 27, 2010 By Sherry