Tarte aux Oranges

On holidays, when everything should be especially great, often loses the relaxed feeling of pre-cooking, the flow, because you have to deliver RESULTS. And on time, Easter Tuesday is no use to anyone, even if then the stores are open again and you could buy the material of the ruined preparation again.

Not quite as bad was the tart to be described here, but still miserable enough that we had to eat it all alone in the last few days, because unfortunately you could not show it to anyone.

The big model was the Tarte by Aurélie, which is very attractive just because of the fancy meringue topping. I started with the Orange Curd. For further use in this tarte here, I finished that a few days before. Very tasty and the little jar for the spread is taken off. The rest is for the tart. Unfortunately, not quite as solid become, probably a little too carefully boiled up, the egg.

Now comes the shortcrust pastry. So actually more like a sand dough. No sugar, no egg, only

• 200 g flour
• 100g butter
• 1 pinch of salt
• and 1/2 glass of water.

Water???? I don’t see this until the ball of dough is already rolled and painstakingly held in shape. Bummer. Oh well, never mind, it balances out with the slightly soggy cream.

Blind baking goes well, I’m glad about the tip from my tart book to crumple the baking paper vigorously beforehand. That way you get it well placed in the round pan and can drape your chickpea and bean collection on top. After 10 minutes, the base now continues to bake without covering while I’m already beating the egg whites.

• 3 egg whites
• 140 g sugar (I take sifted powdered sugar. Is finer).

What is this? Suddenly the dough looks like the great salt lake in Utah! Fatal, now the missing water is noticeable. Quickly out of the oven, and let cool.

The egg whites didn’t take the break well, or maybe the powdered sugar is to blame? The egg whites don’t quite set, well, now it’s just a matter of survival.

Another inspiration - chocolate does go well with oranges! And if I brush the cracked tart base with liquid chocolate, the base will repair itself. Just like the gumdrops do to the crumbling concrete slab on the highway. Genius. I heat

• 70 g of dark chocolate

And brush it onto the crumbling floor. More accurately, I try. The cooling chocolate tears some additional potholes in the very crumbly bottom, but eventually it is tight.

So, now quickly put the cream on top. That works. Now the egg whites into the piping bag and made the beautiful patterns. With the first part (which I start looking ahead in the middle) it goes quite well. Towards the end, the material gets tight and soft, so the edges look more like foothills than level peaks compared to the middle. Fortunately, it’s symmetrical, so it’s intentional.

Now bake briefly. At 100° for 20-30 minutes says the recipe? I no longer trust the fragile pastry and use the grill instead. This works quite well, the egg white browns and I breathe a sigh of relief. Off into the refrigerator, at least there is still half raw egg in it. All’s well that ends well.

Well, until the cut. Either the egg white or the cream has partially liquefied again. And instead of seeping into the dough and making it a bit more elastic, the stable chocolate layer provides a waterproof tub that many a house builder would look upon with envy. Accordingly, a few pools have now formed around the edges of the tart. And not enough with that, the pan has a removable bottom and gradually releases the sticky liquid into the fridge, where it spreads benignly into all the crevices. Bummer. So repack the piece. It finally doesn’t survive and becomes a warped piece of shortbread-orange-chocolate meringue-pamp.

Which tastes really good, by the way…

Tarte au Orange Meringuée