orange creamsicle tart from baked

For this edition of Baked Sunday Mornings (an online group where bloggers are baking through Matt and Renato's Baked Exploration and blogging about it every second Sunday morning), we were to bake the Orange Creamsicle Tart on page 74.

I thought my husband was going to be excited about this one, but when I told him what was on the baking calendar, he just gave me the "I like tarts, I like creamsicles" but I don't necessarily want to eat them together line he give me when I try to combine two foods that he likes. Bah. Charlotte was excited since she had asked for a lemon pie a few days before. We decided that this tart was going to do just fine instead.

Even though making this tart is a day long affair, I really did enjoy making it. You start by making the orange filling, by zesting two lemons before juicing them and sprinkling 1 1/4 tsp  gelatine on the juice to soften. Then there's the zesting and juicing of three oranges, the juice of which is added to orange pop (soda) to reduce by half. The zest of the lemons and oranges is mixed with 3 eggs and 2 egg yolks and 3/4 cup sugar. Then that mixture is tempered with the reduced orange juice/pop mixture and poured back in the saucepan to cook until the curd coats the back of a spoon. The gelatine goes in next, and the whole thing is poured in a fine mesh strainer over 1/2 cup cubed butter. Then you have to whisk like crazy to incorporate air into it. I'm sure minimal air was incorporated in mine since, well, I'm lazy. A piece of plastic wrap goes directly on the curd and it chills in the fridge for 4 hours.

The tart dough was really easy and smelled so good! I don't often bake with orange, so the dough reminded me of scented playdough. It was that silky too. 

For the orange tart dough, 1/2 cup of butter, 1/4 cup of sugar and 1/4 tsp salt are mixed together until fluffy, then we add an egg, and once that's incorporated, 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour until the dough comes together. The dough is then shaped in a circle, wrapped in plastic and stashed in the fridge to chill for half an hour. Then I covered my counter with a piece of parchment and rolled out my dough between that and the piece of plastic I used to wrap it. It went super easy, no flouring, no sticking anywhere. You then peel off the parchment, and put the dough plastic side up in the tart pan. You can easily nudge it in all the nooks and crannies of the pan with the plastic still in place. Then the dough goes in the freezer for 30 minutes. After it's nice and cold, the plastic gets replaced with a piece of foil, and the tart is filled with dried beans, and baked for 15 minutes at 375. Remove the foil and beans, and bake it for an extra 10 minutes until it starts to get golden.

As a note, Matt and Renato said to brush melted white chocolate on the tart before filling it to add a bit of sweetness and to keep the tart crisp. So I did just that.

After that, because you haven't dirtied enough dishes as is, the curd get poured into the bowl of a stand mixer and whipped for 5 minutes before going in the pastry shell. And into the fridge it sits for an hour. Mine was really liquidy, and I had too much to fill the tart pan. I wasn't looking at what I was doing, and almost over filled it. It sets again in the fridge for one hour before being topped with whipped cream (one cup whipping cream, 2 tbsp sugar, 2 tbsp orange pop).

With the filling being so liquidy, I was afraid of it running all over the plate when I cut into it, and it did just that. Although after spending the night in the fridge, the filing did firm up quite a bit, and we were able to get clean slices when we went for seconds.

We really enjoyed this dessert. My husband gave it a 8 out of 10, mainly because of the texture of the filling that he found too soft. The crust was probably the best part of this tart. I'll be using it again to make lemon squares. It was flavorful, and crispy in a good way, and most of all, easy to work with. The orange filling was quite sweet, and the whipped cream was needed to cut through the sweetness.

For the complete recipe and to see how the other bakers liked this tart, visit the Baked Sunday Mornings group. And feel free to grab a book, and join us!