Malta was once so renowned for its blood oranges that they were known in much of the world as “Maltese oranges” and hollandaise sauce made with blood orange juice and zest is called “sauce Maltaise.” In his dazzling new book, Malta, Simon Bajada points out that Marie Antoinette had them sent seasonally to Versailles from the island nation. Bring a bit of Malta to your table with this gorgeous take on the citrus custard tart.
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Maltese Orange Tart
Excerpted with permission from Malta by Simon Bajada, published by Hardie Grant Publishing
For the crust, use your preferred recipe (pâte brisée, sablée or sucrée) or follow the instructions below.
Ingredients
1 shortcrust pastry* (pâte brisée, sablée or sucrée) for a 9-inch tart pan, chilled
3 large eggs
¾ cup caster (superfine) sugar
Grated zest of ½ blood orange
7 tablespoons fresh-squeezed blood orange juice
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter, diced
1 blood orange, sliced thinly (for garnish)
Instructions
Heat oven to 340°F for convection oven (400°F conventional) and butter a 9-inch loose-bottomed tart pan. Roll the pastry out on a floured surface until large enough to cover the pan. Line the pan with the pastry, pressing it into the sides. Trim excess by rolling the pin across the top of the pan. Line with parchment paper and fill with dried beans or rice (or pie weights) for blind baking. Bake for 15 minutes, then lift out the paper and contents and bake for 5 minutes more. Cool on a rack but leave the oven on while you make the orange curd.
Combine eggs, sugar, zest and juices in a medium heatproof bowl and whisk together. Set the bowl above a saucepan of simmering water over medium-low heat. Cook, stirring often with a wooden spoon, for 15–20 minutes, or until the mixture thickens to a curd. It is ready when you are able to draw a line through the curd on the back of the spoon and it doesn’t run. Stir in the butter little by little until well blended and remove from the heat.
Fill tart shell with the curd and bake for another 10 minutes. Leave the tart to cool on a rack, then chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours and serve cold.
For the blood orange garnish, slice the orange into thin discs. Place them on a wire rack and cook them in the oven for the last 5 minutes of the tart cooking. Leave them in the oven when you turn it off, with the door slightly ajar. Place decoratively atop the tart.
*How to Make Shortcut Pastry
Combine 150 grams flour, 50 grams sugar and 85 grams butter in a bowl. Rub together with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs or rough sand. Add 1 egg yolk and 1 teaspoon ice water to form a dough. Shape into a ball, then flatten into a disc. Cover in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before rolling out into a 12-inch round, placing in pan and folding edges back into it.
Wine Pairing
Sometimes shrugged off as a simple sipper, Moscato d’Asti is a DOCG (Italy’s highest wine classification) for a reason. It’s a lightly frizzy and low-alcohol wine with seductive sweet flavors of citrus, citrus blossom, stone fruit and even herbs like thyme and sage, that particularly shines with desserts based on orange, peach or apricot. This tart teases out the wine’s pristine fruit character, while the wine—being sweeter than the dessert, as dessert wines should be—brings out the tart’s freshness, so it tastes of orange and not marmalade. You will go back for seconds of each.
Try: Emilio Vada 2022 Camp Bianc Moscato (Moscato d’Asti)
This article originally appeared in the 2023 Best of Year issue of Wine Enthusiast magazine. Click here to subscribe today!
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The post Blood Oranges Give This Winter Tart a Radiant Hue appeared first on Wine Enthusiast.
