The shining star & highlight of the winter citrus season for me has got to be blood oranges. A somewhat gruesome name for what is actually a beautifully coloured, sweet little citrus fruit. These thick skinned oranges may look like regular oranges from the outside but inside lies a brilliantly blushing crimson red flesh.
This distinctive blood red colour is due to the presence of anthocyanins, a naturally occurring pigment that is common in flowers & fruits like raspberries & blueberries, but actually uncommon in citrus fruit. Much in the same way that the skin of a lemon ripens from green to yellow, the flesh of the blood orange develops & ripens when the fruits are subject to warm days tempered by low night time temperatures.
Each year, I eagerly anticipate the return of blood oranges to the market (I mean, we’ve all got a food calendar right?). They have a very short season with the most common variety found in the UK, the Moro, only available from mid January to February, it’s a real treat not to be missed. Aside from their boujee good looks, blood oranges tend to be easier to peel, have fewer seeds & have a sweeter taste than regular oranges, making them my perfect choice for some baking experiments in the kitchen.
Being the baking geek that I am, I continuously get overly excited by the prospect of a new seasonal delight to play around with (yes, it’s the little things in life right now). Blood oranges are one of those brief moments in the calendar, so each year I aim to create a brand new recipe out of them. This year’s treat is a beautiful, sweet, creamy blood orange & cardamom tart that really showcases this seasonal fruit, you really don’t want to miss out on the chance to try this one.
BLOOD ORANGE & CARDAMOM TART
(makes one 23cm tart)
Ingredients:
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
Method:
- To make the pastry begin by combining sifting together the flours & icing sugar into a large bowl
- Add in the cubed butter to the bowl & using your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs
- Add the egg yolk to the bowl & use a spoon to stir through
- 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
- Use your hands to finish bringing the mixture together to form a dough
- 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)
- 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
- Line your tin with the pastry, leaving the excess to hang over the edges of the tin
- Next, use a fork to prick small holes all over the bottom of your pastry
- Place a sheet of baking parchment in the pastry case & fill with baking beans or rice
- Blind bake the pasty for 10 minutes, remove the beans & parchment & continue to bake for a further 5 minutes until slightly golden in colour
- Remove the tin from the oven & allow to cool for 10 minutes before trimming off the excess pastry overhanging the sides of the tin
- Turn down the temperature on the oven to 120C
- To make the filling, simply whisk all of the ingredients together in large bowl, making sure that everything is well combined
- Once the oven has cooled, place the pastry case back into the oven on a low shelf & very carefully pour in the filling
- Bake the tart for 45-50 minutes until the filling is just set, but with a slight wobble
- Leave to cool completely in its tin before removing
For the decoration:
- To make the candied blood orange slices, begin by slicing the orange quite thinly
- Put the slices into a medium sized saucepan along with the sugar & water
- Gently heat everything until the sugar has completely dissolved
- Bring the mixture up to the boil & continue to boil for 5 – 10 minutes until the sugar & water have become thick & syrupy
- 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
- 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)
