Daring Bakers – Orange Tian

Unlike last month’s challenge this Daring Bakers challenge I finished early. We had to make Orange Tian, a dessert made of different layers: a pate sablee with orange marmalade, a flavored whipped cream topped with fresh orange segments and served with a caramel and orange sauce.

Sounds complicated to you? But it wasn’t at all. The only thing I struggled with was the Agar Agar. I boiled it as instructed and then removed from the heat. Next I prepared the cream, once it was ready I wanted to add the Agar Agar, but in the meantime it had become solid. Nevertheless I added it and as I served my Tians semi-frozen I don’t know if this was a good idea or not… But as I told, this was the only fight I had.

As you may know I have some citrus trees – lemon, orange and tangerine. Unfortunately the orange trees are still too small to have fruits, the tangerine season is over, so there are just lemons left. I was worried only lemon could be too sour, so I ended up with some bought oranges and one lemon from my own tree. The lemon I used for the marmalade.

Normally I make just half of the recipe, this time I made the whole batch of pate sablée and marmelade. The rest of the pate sablée I served as Shortbread with Café bombón.

As I wanted to serve only two portions, I reduced the orange segments, the caramel and whipped cream so that I ended up with these gorgeous Orange Tians

For the Pate Sablee:

1 medium-sized egg
80 g granulated sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
100 g unsalted butter, ice cold, cubed
2 g salt
200 g all-purpose flour
4 g

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 egg, 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 homogenous 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 180 C.

Roll out the dough onto a lightly floured surface until you obtain a ¼ inch thick circle.

Using your cookie cutter, cut out circles of dough and place on a parchment (or silicone) lined baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes or until the circles of dough are just golden.

For the Marmalade:

100 g freshly pressed orange juice
1 large lemon used to make lemon slices
cold water to cook the orange slices
granulated sugar: use the same weight as the weight of orange slices once they are cooked

Finely slice the lemon. Place the lemon 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 lemons for another 10 minutes.

Blanch the lemon slices 3 times. This process removes the bitterness from the lemon 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 lemon slices, the sugar you just weighed, the orange juice. Cook until the mixture reaches a jam consistency (10-15 minutes).

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

For the Orange Segments:

For this step you will need 1 orange.

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

For the Caramel:

50 g granulated sugar
100 g 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.

For the Whipped Cream:

100 g heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons of hot water
1,6 g Agar Agar
1/2 tablespoon of confectioner’s sugar
orange marmalade (see recipe above) 1/2 tablespoon

In a small bowl, add the Agar Agar and hot water, stirring well and bring to a boil. Use immediately. 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 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 Agar Agar 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.

Assembling the Dessert:

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.

***

The 2010 March Daring Bakers 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.

To see the original recipe please head over to the Daring Kitchen Headquarter. There you will also find all the Orange Tians my fellow Daring Bakers made.

November 2007 Challenge – Tender Potatoe Bread
December 2007 Challenge – Yule Log
January 2008 Challenge – Lemon Meringue Pie
February 2008 Challenge – French Bread
March 2008 Challenge – Perfect Party Cake
April 2008 Challenge – Cheesecake Pops
May 2008 Challenge – Opéra Cake
June 2008 Challenge – Danish Braid
July 2008 Challenge – Filbert Gateau
August 2008 Challenge – Chocolate Eclairs
September 2008 Challenge – Lavash Crackers
October 2008 Challenge – Pizza
November 2008 Challenge – Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting
January 2009 Challenge – Tuiles
February 2009 Challenge – Flourless Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Valentino
March 2009 Challenge – Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna (Lasagne Verdi al Forno)
April 2009 Challenge – Cheesecake with Lemon Curd Topping
Mai 2009 Challenge – Banana Strudel
June 2009 Challenge – Bakewell Tart
July 2009 Challenge – Milan Cookies
September 2009 Challenge – Vols-au-Vent
October 2009 Challenge – Macarons
November 2009 Challenge – Cannoli
December 2009 Challenge – Gingerbread House
January 2010 Challenge – Nanaimo Bars
February 2010 Cahllenge – Tiramisu

More entries and recipes in English.