Going Out on a Continental Limb: Spanish Blood Orange Tarte Tatin

Finished Spanish Blood Orange Tarth Tatin

Spoiler Alert! – Too late! The spoiler appears before the alert, so you’ve already seen the finished product. Now here’s the rest of the story.

Single blood orange and a couple of cups of orange custard

Blood oranges appeared in the grocery store in Willcox, Arizona, last week! Be still, my heart! I associate blood oranges with my first time in Paris, so they are irresistible to me. Their rich, deep color so beautiful! A whole bag seemed extravagant, but sometimes little extravagances an adventure can make.

 

I have a pretty good collection of cookbooks here in our winter ghost town cabin, three of them French (one in French language, the two others in English), but none of the three, I discovered, gives a tarte recipe featuring oranges. Whether any recipe I use – or riff off of, more likely – comes from a book or online, however, the books are my first resort, and they are my basic inspiration. So first I sit down and read about fruit, about desserts, about various kinds of pastry, about custards….

My ghost town cookbook collection

This time around I chose as Internet recipe because (1) there was custard involved (always a plus in my book); and (2) the cook’s backstory referenced Spain, the source of blood oranges. I did not, however, follow her suggestion to use a ready-made, store-bought puff pastry but made my own. It isn’t that difficult. As for croissants, the pastry involves a lot of butter (I used the a cheese grater and grated the cold butter) and multiple sessions of refrigerator chilling, rolling out, and refolding. The folding and rolling, over and over, distributes the butter through the dough. You want it kept cold so that the pieces of butter will burst in the oven to create a flaky finished product. I also used a round rather than rectangular pan, since that’s what I had.

Puff pastry rolled out and stretched over pie pan

Parchment paper and dry rice before pre-baking shell

For whipping cream and crème fraiche, I substituted Mexican crema, which was so successful in my savory clafoutis. No orange blossom water, but yes on the zest and juice. Another recipe I’d read used cardamom, so I added a scant half-teaspon of that and a splash of cream sherry.

Orange zest, orange juice, and cream added to beaten eggs and sugar

Same as above but mixed

Sherry and cardamom added

There are three layers to this dessert, and it goes into and comes out of the oven three separate times: first, the puff pastry crust; next, the custard filling; last, the entire tarte, topped with the caramelized blood orange slices.

Orange slices in clear syrup

Syrup soaked into orange slices, liquid evaporated

Recipes vary as to how the orange slices are prepared and arranged. Some cooks cut off the rind and use hexagonal slices, while others leave the rind on. Some overlap the slices, and some don’t. Leaving the rind on seemed the more adventurous course, but then I overlapped the slices only slightly, to encourage uniform cooking. Here's that finished product again: 

This blood orange tarte tatin is a very rich and fairly elaborate dessert. You’ll want to make it when blood oranges are in season – if you’re going to use blood oranges, it would be hard to do it any other time, but ordinary oranges can be substituted -- and if it’s for a company dinner, you’ll want to keep the rest of the menu simple. Simple in preparation, because the tarte will keep you busy, and fairly light to digest, so guests won’t be overwhelmed by the dessert. My kitchen experiments are not usually this elaborate, but once in a while the Paris kitchen needs to go Continental! I cut very small slices for us and drizzled them lightly with crema, more for the visual effect than because anything more was needed. Another time, we agreed, the rinds will be eliminated. 

Single serving

In fact, though, since it’s just the two of us right now, I decided I could remove the orange slices the next morning, cut off the rinds, and rearrange the fruit slices. Why not? 

Tarte Redux