Bleeding Tarts and the Hopeless Chef

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They're more alien looking to me than pomegranates. More extraterrestrial than dragon fruits, and more bizarre than mangosteens. It's a beautiful color, but at the same time unearthly in its deep, shirt staining quality. Yes, beware, the apron I was baking with now has a splotch of blood orange juice. Sadness. The tide-to-go I frantically grabbed didn't do anything but facilitate the spread of the juice on the fabric. Maybe I applied it wrong. Blood oranges simply put are scary looking to me. They do make cool looking desserts though!

Blood oranges are in season during the winter, and I was able to find these guys at Target surprisingly for $3.99 for a 3 pound bag. My local farmers market didn't carry any, nor did the Whole Foods down the street. Out of all my grocery stores that I have access to, I put Target at the bottom of the list for the likelihood of finding blood oranges. More points in my book for Target since they carried these for a decent price! I wonder if Walmart has blood oranges in stock as well. I was about to go after school, but that would be procrastination to the extreme, even if two of my exams are delayed until next week.

I love my older sisters. They spoil me to death, and I can mess around with them as if they were my younger siblings. My oldest sister, however, is a complete disaster in the kitchen. I should just ban her. That's a dangerous place to put someone who is down right clueless. We made some stir-fried noodles for lunch, and I have a heartfelt message for her. Sister, you have to boil the water before you dump in the noodles. Oh right, you also have to cook the noodles before you can eat them. Enough said. I will commend her for her impeccable mastery of the art of scrambled eggs though. She's got that down to a science!

Hate the lighting of the rest of the picture, but the orange slice looked so pretty.

This recipe is pretty simple in my opinion because there's no special technique when combining the ingredients. I had a vision of a liquid center oozing out of the tart when you bit into it, but it took me a while to figure out how to execute it. I ended up freezing the syrup in my mini cupcake tins lined with plastic wrap. Silicon molds would have been a luxury, but I made do. The only thing I would foresee any compilations is knowing when the custard is thoroughly cooked, but not overdone so that it is no longer creamy. The surface shouldn't brown at all, both for aesthetic and textural reasons. When you take these out of the oven they will jiggle a lot, but when they are chilled, the filling sets up into a firm, smooth, luscious custard. It's also a plus that the amount of ingredients is pretty minimal and simplistic when evaluating the number of components that went into these tarts. The only things I really needed to buy were the oranges and chocolate. Talk about a breeze! They tasted pretty good, I liked how the liquid center was slightly bitter to compete with the very sweet custard. I may make a variation of these with a cheesecake custard and possibly a chocolate center.
The rundown:
a hazelnut crust, an oozing blood orange center, a blood orange custard, and a dark chocolate ganache
Enjoy!

HAZELNUT CRUST
Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit
INGREDIENTS

• 1/4 cup toasted hazelnuts
• 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• pinch of salt
• 70 grams chilled unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 1 egg yolk
• ice water

DIRECTIONS

1. Lightly grease your tart shells. Using a food processor, pulse the hazelnuts until finely ground. Add in the flour, sugar and salt and pulse until mixed.
2. Add in the butter and process until the mixture is sandy in texture. Add in the egg yolk and process, adding in a little ice water until a dough forms. 
3. Section the dough into 25 gram balls and then mold into the tart shells. 
4. Place into the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Bake the shells for 10 minutes, or until slightly golden.

BLOOD ORANGE CENTER
INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup blood orange juice
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon corn syrup
• pinch of salt

DIRECTIONS

1. Place all the ingredients in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Cook until a thick syrup coats the back of the spoon. For reference, the mixture should be similar to that syrup that oozes out of cordial cherries. The reduced mixture should measure out to be 1/3 cup.
2. Pour into molds, such as mini cupcake tins, small enough to fit into your tart shells, and freeze until solid.

BLOOD ORANGE CUSTARD
INGREDIENTS

• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 3/8 cup blood orange juice
• 2 teaspoons blood orange zest

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit

1. Put all the ingredients in a medium sized bowl and whisk until just combined.
2. Place a frozen cube of orange syrup in the center of each of the tart shells, and pour the custard on top, filling it up close to the rim. Bake for 10 minutes or until the mixture bubbles. Chill thoroughly. 

DARK CHOCOLATE GANACHE
INGREDIENTS

• 4 oz. good quality dark chocolate
• 6 oz. heavy cream

DIRECTIONS

1. Put both ingredients into a microwave safe bowl, and heat until the chocolate melts, and mixes into a smooth ganache. Alternatively you could do this the traditional way and heat up some cream and pour it over finely grated chocolate. You may also add either corn syrup or a few pats of cold butter to get a nice shine.
2. Spoon roughly 1 teaspoon of ganache on top of each tart shell, swirling and tapping until it settles into a smooth surface. Allow to cool and set before serving. Garnish with a candied orange peel or chocolate decorations. 

Creamsicle Cupcakes on Accident

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First off, frosting just hates me. I've never been able to make the luscious topping in one go. Every time I end up dumping this thin sugary concoction into the trash because something just has to go wrong. This time I tried making a simple confectioner's sugar and butter frosting in attempts to make a mango buttercream. FAIL. I wasted the liquid gold, the mango purée, after trying to incorporate it into the butter and sugar. Maybe I added too much, but without the amount I introduced it just tasted like butter. In the end it was a curdled mess even after 20 minutes of constant beating. Into the trash can it went.

I had no mango left and so I had to scratch that flavor off my list. Instead I had some lovely oranges I bought last week and well they seemed promising. Look at how juicy it is!

So I started to make a cooked frosting that seemed simple enough and boy was it worth it. The frosting was creamy and tart and apparently tasted like a creamsicle according to my family. Now the sad part... I had no clue what they were talking about. I've only had one of these childhood staples once in my life, which was recently when I revealed to my eldest sister I was deprived of them. Heck. I didn't know what a creamsicle was. I mean what kind of name is that!?

The cupcake was pretty delicious too. I've been on the quest to find that perfect vanilla cupcake recipe because some just fall flat in my opinion *cough* Magnolia's *cough*.  They always seem to turn out dense and flavorless. How much vanilla extract do I need to add!? Then a thought came to me, Remember those Betty Crocker box cake mixes? I recall a little icon saying there was pudding added and so I took the initiative and added instant jell-o pudding to my batter. The result... DELICIOUS. I have no other adjective in my vocabulary to describe something that tasted good. It was concentrated vanilla in a cupcake. It was also moist but not to the point where it falls apart because it's so delicate. Yeah, that's happened to me too.

Now since this was a basically an experiment I shall give you guys the recipe that I can devise after sifting through my thought process when making these cupcakes. Please remember that I can't really remember. Lol. Uhhhh. Okay. I add ingredients according to how it tastes. A dash more salt. A splash more vanilla. Whatever seems to be missing I throw it in. I will continue to modify this vanilla cupcake to fit my tastes. Someday it will become the golden.

Enjoy!

Vanilla Cupcake

Loosely adapted from smittenkitchen

Yields 6 cupcakes

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons vanilla pudding mix
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 3/8 cup sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 large egg, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup buttermilk, well-shaken

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 350°F

1. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, pudding and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, then beat in vanilla. Add egg, beating well and scraping down the bow to incorporate well.
3. At low speed, beat in buttermilk until just combined Add flour mixture in three batches, being careful not to over mix.
4. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake for 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one comes out clean.

Orange Buttercream

Loosely adapted from Magnolia

Yields enough to frost 6 cupcakes

INGREDIENTS

• 1/3 cup milk
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1/2 teaspoon orange zest
• 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup butter, room temperature
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon orange extract
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a small sauce pan reduce the orange juice until thick over medium heat. Then add the  milk, flour and orange zest, whisking constantly until the mixture becomes thick. About 10 minutes. Take off heat and allow to cool to room temperature.
2. In a small bowl beat the butter for a few minutes. Add the sugar and beat until pale and fluffy. Do not worry, it should look grainy.
3. Add in the cooked milk mixture and beat until frosting becomes significantly lighter in color.
4. Add in the orange and vanilla extract. At this point you can also add more sugar and beat until dissolved if you prefer a sweeter frosting. Use immediately!