Blood Orange & Cardamom Tart

For the pastry:

• 120g plain flour
• 120g wholemeal flour
• 5 tbsp icing sugar
• 120g butter, cubed
• 1 large egg yolk
• 2 – 3 tbsp cold water

For the filling:

• Zest & juice of 4 blood oranges
• 5 large eggs
• 150ml double cream
• 250g caster sugar
• 2 tsp cardamom

Optional – For the decoration:

• 1 blood orange, sliced thinly
• 100ml water
• 150g caster sugar
• Small handful of pistachios or pumpkin seeds

1. 1. To make the pastry begin by combining sifting together the flours & icing sugar into a large bowl
2. 2. Add in the cubed butter to the bowl & using your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs
3. 3. Add the egg yolk to the bowl & use a spoon to stir through
4. 4. Next add in 1 tbsp of water & stir through, continue to add water sparingly, only adding 1 tbsp at a time, just enough until the mixture starts to clump together
5. 5. Use your hands to finish bringing the mixture together to form a dough
6. 6. Flatten the dough into a shallow disc shape, cover in a beeswax wrap or some cling film & chill in the fridge for approximately 30 minutes (you could even do this the day before)
7. 7. Pre-heat the oven to 180C & roll out the pastry into a round, to roughly the thickness of a £1 coin, one large enough to fill a 22cm round tart tin
8. 8. Line your tin with the pastry, leaving the excess to hang over the edges of the tin
9. 9. Next, use a fork to prick small holes all over the bottom of your pastry
10. 10. Place a sheet of baking parchment in the pastry case & fill with baking beans or rice
11. 11. Blind bake the pasty for 10 minutes, remove the beans & parchment & continue to bake for a further 5 minutes until slightly golden in colour
12. 12. Remove the tin from the oven & allow to cool for 10 minutes before trimming off the excess pastry overhanging the sides of the tin
13. 13. Turn down the temperature on the oven to 120C
14. 14. To make the filling, simply whisk all of the  ingredients together in large bowl, making sure that everything is well combined
15. 15. Once the oven has cooled, place the pastry case back into the oven on a low shelf & very carefully pour in the filling
16. 16. Bake the tart for 45-50 minutes until the filling is just set, but with a slight wobble
17. 17. Leave to cool completely in its tin before removing

For the decoration:

1. 1. To make the candied blood orange slices, begin by slicing the orange quite thinly
2. 2. Put the slices into a medium sized saucepan along with the sugar & water
3. 3. Gently heat everything until the sugar has completely dissolved
4. 4. Bring the mixture up to the boil & continue to boil for 5 – 10 minutes until the sugar & water have become thick & syrupy
5. 5. Carefully remove the orange slices, allowing any excess liquid to fall away & place on a piece of parchment to dry & cool before decorating the tart
6. 6. Arrange the orange slices on top of the tart before finishing with a sprinkling of chopped pistachios or pumpkin seed (makes for a lovely contrast in colour)