Blood Orange Curd Tart with Lady Fingers Topping
Yum
Blood Orange Curd Tart with Lady Fingers Topping is sophisticated dessert, with buttery tart crust, light citrus blood orange curd, and ladyfingers sponge on the top. Perfect blood orange dessert!
This would be just another blood orange tart with rich, decadent crust recipe if it weren’t for amazing Savoiardi aka ladyfingers topping. Spongy finishing idea struck me like a thunder!
Blood orange season lasts for a short time, and you can prepare the curd in advance. That is what I have done. Once cooled, I left it in the fridge for two weeks, firmly packed in plastic container so I could combine all the ingredients together to make Blood Orange Curd Tart with Lady Fingers Topping during one of our free weekends.
Sweet blood oranges flavours, emphasized with few drops of orange essence and with little bit of tartness and just enough sugar to tame blood oranges makes you eat the curd alone. It is of sharp citrusy taste, and you can easily eat the whole batch with your toast or citrus flavored cookies.
You may find orange curd runny to use and there is simple solution to make it thicker: add some corn starch! This is what I have done so, once cut, the slices look great!
What is fruit curd?
Fruit curd is kind of a pastry cream since it assembles eggs, sugar, fruit juice and fruit zest, and butter. It is the best if you use whole eggs not the egg yolks only since egg whites give so much desired creamy and smooth spread texture.
To make 2 cups of blood orange curd, you need 15 minutes, total time. Below, in detailed recipe instructions, you may read the whole curd tart recipe.
There is another tip about the curd: intense red colour of blood oranges disappears once you add eggs to the mixture so I added two drops of red food colour to make it vibrant:
What is fruit curd used for?
You may serve it with scones, pancakes, toast, or waffles as an alternative to fruit spreads. It may serve as filling for cake, tart, cupcakes or muffins.
What is the difference between curd and jam?
Fruit curds are distinctly different from jams or jellies or even preserves since curds are made by cooking down fruit juice and with sugar rather than the whole fruit. The result is a creamy spread you can pipe into pastries or just serve plain and spread onto toast or biscuits.
What are ladyfingers?
Ladyfingers are small delicate sponge cakes which are shaped like fingers. They have very mild flavour. Due to their dryness, they are very absorbent and perfect for Tiramisu, charlotte and trifles, or any other simple but fancy looking tasty dessert.
Of course, you can serve them as an accompaniment to coffee, tea or ice cream, as well.
Are lady fingers soft or crunchy?
When they are freshly baked, they are quite soft and sponge-like in the center and a little crisp on the outside. Being so delicate, though, they firm up in a really short time if left out in the room temperature.
In Italy, they are known as Savoiardi and in France as Boudoirs.
Ladyfingers originate back in 15th century at the court of the Duchy of Savoy and were created to mark the occasion of a visit by the King of France. Later, they were given the name Savoiardi and recognized as an “official” court biscuit. They were particularly appreciated by the younger members of the court and offered to visitors as an example of the local cuisine.
If you are interested in savory tarts made by 2pots, here they are:
Rustic Vegetarian Spinach Tart
Rustic Mediterranean Easter Tart from Scratch
Rustic Harvest Vegetarian Mushrooms Tart
And sweet ones, too:
Blood Orange Curd Tart with Lady Fingers Topping
Blood Orange Curd Tart with Lady Fingers Topping is sophisticated dessert, with buttery tart crust, light citrus blood orange curd, and ladyfingers sponge on the top. Perfect blood orange dessert!
Ingredients
- Ingredients for blood orange curd:
- ¾ cup blood orange juice ( 4 oranges )
- 4 eggs
- 5 Tbsp white sugar
- 2 drops edible oranges essence
- 2 drops red food color, optional
- 6 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 2 Tbsp corn starch
- Ingredients for the crust:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 Tbsp sugar
- 1 egg
- 4 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
- Pinch of salt
- Ingredients for lady fingers topping:
- 2 eggs, separated
- 2+8 Tbsp powdered sugar
- 3 Tbsp cake flour
- 3 Tbsp corn starch
- 2 drops edible orange essence
- Powdered sugar to dust the tart before serving
Instructions
-
Squeeze 4 – 5 blood oranges, depending on size to get ¾ cup of juice.
-
In medium sized pot, whisk the eggs, sugar, orange juice, corn starch, edible orange essence and bring to boil, stirring constantly. Boil for approx. 4 – 5 minutes and take away from the heat. Add butter and incorporate. Leave aside. You can prepare the curd up to 4 weeks in advance.
-
Preheat the oven to 180 C / 356 F.
-
Butter 10 x 6 inches pan and cover it with parchment paper.
-
On a flat, clean working surface, combine all the crust ingredients, using your hands.
-
Roll the crust using rolling pin to fit the bottom and the sides of a pan.
-
Fill the crust with pie weights or dried beans.
-
Bake for 10 minutes and take it out.
-
Lower the oven temperature to 160 C / 320 F.
-
For the topping, beat egg yolks, orange essence and 2 Tbsp of powdered sugar until pale.
-
In another bowl, mix egg whites and 8 Tbsp of icing sugar until stiff peaks form.
-
Incorporate egg-whites mixture to the first one. Gently fold using spatula.
-
Add cake flour and corn starch slowly and gently fold together so the mixture doesn't lose the air bubbles.
-
Pour blood orange curd into the pre baked tart shell.
-
Take one zip log plastic bag and fill with the lady fingers topping. Cut a tip off.
-
Gently spread over the curd to cover it completely.
-
Bake for 30 minutes. The top of orange curd tart should become golden and crusty.
-
Cool completely.
-
Dust with powdered sugar before serving.
Leave a Reply