ORANGE TIAN

For over a year, I've been checking out desserts baked by an online group "Daring Bakers."  I've been tempted to join several times, but always found some excuse not to.  Well, finally this year I created this blog and decided to join the group. Once signed up I was very excited to see what my first challenge as a Daring Baker would be.

The 2010 March Daring Baker’s challenge was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings (www.chocolateshavings.ca). She chose Orange Tian as the challenge for this month, a dessert based on a recipe from Alain Ducasse’s Cooking School in Paris.

I love citrus based desserts so I was decided to stick with the original recipe sans any changes.  The dessert had 5 components: pate sable, orange marmalade, orange caramel sauce, orange segments, and a stabilized whipped cream.  My favorite components were the pate sablee and the orange marmalade.  I love orange marmalade and have been wanting to make it but couldn't decide on a recipe so I never got around to it.  It's amazing how the multiple blanching of the orange removed all of the bitterness.  My older daughter tasted the orange marmalade and commented "It tastes just like the Coney Island marmalade."  The next component I tackled was the pate sable which tastes delicious all by itself.  I've made pate sucre and pate brisee before, but hadn't made pate sablee before.  The dry caramel didn't work for me so I had to toss out the first batch of sugar and started over.  The second time around I added a little water to the sugar and it worked better.  Unfortunately, I don't think I let the color of the sugar get dark enough so the flavor of the sauce wasn't as good as I thought it would be.   Segmenting the oranges and making the whipped cream was pretty straightforward.  I didn't have mini rings so I had my husband cut me some from an empty plastic food jar. In the process of assembling the dessert I noticed that my pate sable discs came out a little larger than the ring, but my husband's idea of "sanding" them a little with a microplane worked great!  The assembly was pretty fast and off the assembled rings went to the freezer for 10 minutes. 

     I had no trouble with un-molding of the tian.  After a few photos, my husband and I devoured the tian.  It tasted wonderful .... very light and refreshing .... the perfect dessert for spring!

 { ORANGE TIAN }

{Preparation time}

- Pate Sablee: 20 minutes to make, 30 minutes to rest, 15 minutes to roll out, 20 minutes to bake
- Marmalade: 20 minutes to make, 30 minutes to blanch
- Orange segments: 20 minutes, overnight to sit
- Caramel: 15 minutes, overnight to sit
- Whipped Cream: 15 minutes
- Assembling: 20 minutes
- Freezer to Set: 10 minutes

{Equipment required}

• Cookie cutters (6 total)
• A food processor (although the dough could be made by hand too)
• A stand-up or hand mixer
• Parchment paper or a silicone sheet
• A baking sheet
• A rolling pin

{For the Pate Sablee}

Ingredients
2 medium-sized egg yolks at room temperature
granulated sugar 6 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon; 2.8 oz; 80 grams
vanilla extract ½ teaspoon
Unsalted butter ¼ cup + 3 tablespoons; 3.5 oz; 100 grams ice cold, cubed
Salt 1/3 teaspoon; 2 grams
All-purpose flour 1.5 cup + 2 tablespoons; 7 oz; 200 grams
baking powder 1 teaspoon ; 4 grams

Directions
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 eggs yolks, 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 350 degree Fahrenheit.
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}

Ingredients
Freshly pressed orange juice ¼ cup + 3 tablespoons; 3.5 oz; 100 grams
1 large orange used to make orange slices
cold water to cook the orange slices
pectin 5 grams
granulated sugar: use the same weight as the weight of orange slices once they are cooked

Directions
Finely slice the orange. Place the orange 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 oranges for another 10 minutes.
Blanch the orange slices 3 times. This process removes the bitterness from the orange 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 orange slices, the sugar you just weighed, the orange juice and the pectin. 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 8 oranges.
Cut the oranges 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}

Ingredients
granulated sugar 1 cup; 7 oz; 200 grams
orange juice 1.5 cups + 2 tablespoons; 14 oz; 400 grams

Directions
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}

Ingredients
heavy whipping cream 1 cup; 7 oz; 200 grams
3 tablespoons of hot water
1 tsp Gelatin
1 tablespoon of confectioners sugar
1 tablespoon orange marmalade

Directions

In a small bowl, add the gelatin and hot water, stirring well until the gelatin dissolves. Let the gelatin cool to room temperature while you make the whipped cream. 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 confectioners 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 cooled gelatin 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}

• 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. 

{Notes}

    I will definitely use this recipe again and can vary the flavor combinations: strawberry and chocolate, raspberry with white chocolate, mango with coconut etc.  The pate sable discs were a little hard to cut with the fork (I was probably heavy handed when making the dough) so next time I would be careful with that and also bake them a little less. I assemble the tian once upside down and another time right side up.  I had some whipped cream seep through some of the orange segments so it was easier for me to assemble them right side up.  I also lined one of the rings with acetate and one without.  The acetate wasn't necessary as the frozen tian slipped out effortlessly.