Blood orange, chilli and mint curd tart
Blood orange, chilli and mint curd tart
Hello!
Okay, so it’s been a while since I’ve written on here. However, there are several reasons for that. Combined with me starting a new job, dealing with several health issues and moving cities, my creative streak kinda died. Which I found quite sad but I had to put myself first. I also found coming back here to write a little scary because, well, I’m a bit of a perfectionist. That said, the only way to get better at writing is to, well, write more. And so rather than having the mindset of “I need to be perfect” like I’m auditioning for Swan Lake, I’m going to keep these blog posts a bit more informal. Hopefully, this means that I can enjoy writing again? Because I do actually like writing, I just need to accept that it’s a process at the end of the day.
Anyways, recently one of my closest mates celebrated turning a year older. Whether that makes him a little bit wiser is questionable of course (he’s so gonna get me back for writing this sentence but I digress). That said, I wanted to make him a gift and it gave me the opportunity to make a fruit curd tart. Now he loves blood oranges. And so I thought that if you get the balance of other flavours such as mint and chilli flake right, it would make a great dessert. I focused on adding the mint into the curd as well as decoration and if I were to make this tart again I would infuse the mint into oil so you really get the fresh mint flavour being more forward. I’ve also evolved my palette in a way where I try to not have too much going on. Although complexity is required for desserts in my opinion, you don’t want to do it at the expense of not celebrating a particular food in question, where in this example it’s the blood orange. The question is, what will be the next dessert that I make? Finally, if you’ve been following my work for a while, you’ll know that I gained inspiration for my tart designs from the wonderful Lauren Ko. So hence the design in question. And if you haven’t, please check out her work!
A few notes. You can make this in around 3 hours (plus a few hours of cooling time), although I suggest making the tart the day before to prevent stress. I recommend using a food processor, however, you can make the pastry by hand. Finally, feel inspired by my design and make it your own!
Ingredients
For the pastry
220 g plain white flour
30 g icing sugar
½ tsp fine sea salt
1 tsp ground mixed spice
1 tsp chilli flakes
140 g unsalted butter cubed and from the fridge
1 large egg yolk, separated
1 large egg white, separated
2-3 tbsp ice cold water
For the curd
6 freshly squeezed blood oranges
The leaves of 4 mint sprigs (I’d increase this to 8 for a more mint forward flavour)
The zest of 4 blood oranges
330 g granulated sugar
5 whole large eggs, 3 large egg yolks
250 g strained Greek yoghurt
3 drops of red food colouring (optional)
For the decoration
2 blood oranges
Mint leaves
Instructions
To make the pastry, combine all the dry ingredients and butter in a food processor and blend together to form a breadcrumb consistency. Place the contents into a large bowl. Add your egg yolk and ice cold water into your mixture and using a knife, stir until the mixture begins to clump together. Don't be alarmed by the dough is slightly dry.
Put the contents of the bowl on a work surface and gently knead the pastry until combined. Finally, place your pastry between two pieces of parchment paper and roll it out to the thickness of about 3 mm (pound coin thickness), turning it 90 degrees between each roll. Place the pastry sheet in the fridge and let it chill for 15 minutes.
Next, preheat your oven to 190 degrees celsius, 170 fan. Cut a circle of parchment paper to fit the base of a 10 inch, 4 cm deep tart tin. Remove your pastry from the fridge and gently fold it in half and in half again to form a quarter. Place the quartered pastry into the centre of the tin and unfold it so that it covers the whole tin. Gently press your pastry into the tin so that it fits in all the grooves. Leave a centimetre of excess pastry and use the scrap pastry to fill in any gaps. Use a fork to place light holes across your pastry base and place it in the freezer for 10 minutes.
Take your pastry out of the freezer, line the tart case with parchment paper and fill with baking beans. Place your tart case in the oven and bake for around 22 minutes or until the pastry begins to shrink from the sides. Remove the parchment paper and beans and with a serrated knife, trim off the excess pastry. Place the case back in the oven and bake for another 5-7 minutes or until the base is no longer damp. Remove your tart case add an egg white wash and place in the oven for 2 mins. Finally, remove from the oven and reduce the temperature to 140 degrees fan.
Prepare your curd. Place the blood orange juice, sugar, mint, zest and eggs into a large pot and mix together with a whisk. Continue to whisk and place the mixture over a low heat. Keep stirring for around 20 minutes and once the mixture begins to thicken and covers the back of a spoon, take it off the heat. Whisk in your yoghurt and strain your curd into a large bowl. Place the baked tart case in its tin back into the oven and carefully pour the curd into the case. Bake for around 20-25 minutes until there is a slight jiggle in the middle of the tart. Remove from the oven and let it cool for an hour at room temperature before transferring it to the fridge to completely set (minimum 2 hours ideally overnight).
Once your tart has fully set, decorate with the blood orange segments and mint leaves. Serve.
Note: if you don't have a food processor, you can break the butter up by hand to eventually resemble fine breadcrumbs