Florida Grapefruit-White Chocolate Pie

A couple of weekends ago I found myself HOME ALONE-- a rare occurrence in a household of six. To be honest, I was actually joined in my solitude by a huge basket of ripe Florida grapefruit, left behind by my housemate Juanita, accompanied with a note reading "SAVE ME!". Kari had already spoiled all of us with a grapefruit-ginger meringue tart (of which I indulged myself, once or twice) which was still sitting in the fridge, but there was still plenty o' grapefruit for the taking. So on that Sunday, after somewhat of a creepy Saturday night in a big drafty house, I stationed myself in the kitchen determined to put a whole lotta citrus to good use.

I started out by making ginger-grapefruit marmalade. For Christmas, my very generous and sweet brother got me the beautiful River Cottage Preserves Handbook by Pam Corbin. I have only ever tried making Corbin's apple herb and flower jelly and apple cider butter recipes and that was via my friend Lora's copy; I had yet to innaugurate my own edition. Inside its pages, I found a recipe for Seville orange marmalade with a grapefruit variation--I added some ginger et puis, voila! But grapefruit still remained. Hence, this pie.

There was already a grapefruit meringue tart in the house, so I needed something a lil' different. I thought about trying a grapefruit variation of this rustic blood orange tart, but wanted to branch out with somethin' fresh (and maybe a little weird?)! Hence, this "Florida citrus pie" (which I am calling, I believe more aptly, a Florida grapefruit-white chocolate pie.

Warning--this pie is a little strange! Especially if you, like me, aren't all that into white chocolate. But with each tasting (there were a few), it grew on me. On the other hand, the tang of the grapefruit and the tang of the white chocolate is kind weird, ya know? One resounding success of this pie is THE CRUST. It's incredible. I even used about half pecans, instead of all-macadamia nut, and it was still bangin'. I'll definitely be using it in other recipes in the future. I also think this recipe would be amazing with oranges, especially blood oranges. Yum. In any case, if you've got a lot of grapefruit on your hands and love white chocolate, give this one a whirl. It's real fresh. And it looks great.

Florida Grapefruit-White Chocolate Pie
Adapted from Bon Appetit via Epicurious

Ingredients
For crust:
7 oz. roasted macadamia nuts (I used 3 oz. pecans & 4 oz. macadamia nuts as a cost-saving measure!)
3/4 c. ground gingersnap cookies
1/4 c. dark brown sugar
1/4 c. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted

For filling:
2 c. fresh pink grapefruit juice
1/4 c. + 1 Tblsp. sugar
1 1/4 tsp. unflavored gelatin
1/4 c. fresh lime juice
9 oz. white chocolate (I used Ghirardelli)
1/4 c. + 1 1/4 c. chilled whipping cream

For topping:
1 c. chilled whipping cream
2 Tblsp. sugar
7 thin lime slices (optional)
8 oz. white chocolate shaved into curls (optional)

Directions
For crust:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Finely chop nuts in food processor. Add ground gingersnap cookies, sugar, and butter and pulse until moist crumbs form. Press mixture firmly into bottom and sides of a greased and floured 9-inch pie pan. Bake crust 10 minutes or until golden. Let cool on a wire rack.

For filling:
1. Boil grapefruit juice and 1/4 c. sugar in a heavy medium saucepan over high heat until reduced to about 3/4 cup, about 15-20 minutes. Meanwhile, sprinkle gelatin over lime juice and gently whisk. Let stand 10 minutes. Once grapefruit mixture is reduced, turn heat to low, and add gelatin mixture, white chocolate, and 1/4 c. cream. Whisk until white chocolate and gelatin melt and mixture is smooth. Pour into a large bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate until cool but not set, about 2 hours, whisking and scraping down sides of bowl occasionally.

2. Meanwhile, whip 1 1/4 c. whipping cream until soft peaks form. After mixture has chilled for about 2 hours, fold whipped cream into filling until combined. Pour into baked pie crust and return to the fridge while you prepare the topping.

For topping:
1. Beat cream and sugar until stiff peaks form. Spoon whipped cream into a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip. Line pie with symmetrically placed lime slices, then pipe rosettes of cream around the edge. Fill center with additional whipped cream, and sprinkle white chocolate curls on top, if desired. Pie should be served chilled and can be made 4 hours ahead.

Key Lime Pie

Somehow I've managed to keep a pie blog for 11 years without featuring Key Lime Pie. I've had Key Lime Pie Popsicles, Florida Citrus Pie, and Bill Smith's very similar Atlantic Beach Pie, but have up until now failed to include a straight recipe for the classic American dessert thought to have originated in the Florida Keys around 1890 (at least so says John Egerton and Nancie McDermott; in the Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John Mariani dates it as early as 1856). It's due time to rectify this omission.

Key Lime Pie's history is closely linked to the history of sweetened condensed milk, which Gail Borden began producing just before the Civil War. The canned product found particular traction, in those days before pre-refrigeration, in areas where fresh milk was not readily accessible. Such was the case in southern Florida.

The original Key Lime Pie recipe was likely inspired by another classic pie-- In 1947 the New York Times called it "the equivalent of a lemon meringue pie made with the small, juicy key limes" (Food Timeline). The small, green-yellow citrus fruits, though, were plentiful in the Florida Keys, and were combined with sweetened condensed milk to create a dessert initially distinctive of the region.



While the original recipe called for pastry crust, graham crackers are now standard, with some variations employing vanilla wafers, gingersnaps, or occasionally, Ritz crackers. Whether the pie should be topped with whipped cream or meringue can still be a point of contention, though the majority of Key lime pies today opt for the cream.

This version, adapted from Alison Kave's First Prize Pies, is a fairly standard recipe, adding an ample dose of lime zest for extra zing. I think it's the perfect combination of tart and sweet. It's best if you use the smaller Key limes, generally available in the winter months, bought in bulk mesh bags at most grocery stores. If you can't find them, though, regular limes will certainly do.

 Key Lime Pie
Adapted from First Prize Pies

Ingredients

For crust:

1 1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs

5 Tblsp. unsalted butter

1 Tblsp. sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

For filling:

1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk

3/4 cup Key lime juice (from 20-25 limes or 5-6 regular limes)

4 large egg yolks

Zest of 4 Key limes or 11/2 regular limes

1/4 teaspoon salt

Key lime slices, for decoration (optional)

Whipped cream (optional)

Directions

For the crust:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Pour graham cracker crumbs in a bowl and stir in melted butter, sugar, and salt until well mixed.

2. Pat the buttery crumbs into a 9-inch pie pan, pressing mixture into the bottom and sides to form a pie crust. Place in oven and bake until crust is lightly browned, about 10-12 minutes. Place on a cooling rack and let cool to room temperature before adding the filling.

For the filling:

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the sweetened condensed milk, lime juice and zest, egg yolks, and salt until blended and frothy. Pour the filling into the baked and cooled pie crust and bake for 15-20 minutes until the filling has just set and bubbles begin to appear. 

2. Remove pie and let cool on a wire rack at room temperature for 20 minutes before refrigerating. Refrigerate at least 1 hour to set. Serve with lime slices and whipped cream, if desired. Enjoy!

Related recipes:
Atlantic Beach Pie
Florida Grapefruit-White Chocolate Pie
Key Lime Pie Popsicles
Lime Bundt Cake
Lime and Raspberry Italian Meringue Pie

Atlantic Beach Pie

After collaborating on an illustrated Peppermint Pattie Tart place setting for BYT's holiday table decor guide, Elizabeth and I decided to turn it into a series. Each month in 2014, we'll bring you a new installment of Hand Drawn Pies-- thematically illustrated place setting 'n' pie combination for your viewing and tasting enjoyment. 

Nothing like a polar vortex to make you long for salty beach air and warm and salty summer days. Though you may not be able to take a getaway (the plane may not even be able to takeoff with all this snow), this salty citrus pie can take you there for a moment in your mind.

Atlantic Beach Pie is a classic at seafood restaurants along the North Carolina coast. According to Bill Smith, who grew up in that area, if you ate sweets after a meal of seafood, you'd get sick. The only exception was a lemon-lime pie with a saltine crust and a meringue top.

This version, which replaces the meringue with whipped cream, comes from Smith, the chef at Crook's Corner in Chapel Hill. I'd read the article about the pie on NPR, but didn't drink the Kool-Aid until I'd tried the original, while on a visit back to my old Carolina grad school haunts. Now this pie has found it's rightful place in my repertoire-- not only is it a heavenly trio of tangy, salty, and sweet, it is also a cinch to make. The ease and lightness makes it perfect for any vacation, whether in the snowy West Virginia mountains or in the hot sand on Kure Beach, after seafood or not.

Atlantic Beach Pie

Adapted from Bill Smith of Crook's Corner via NPR

Ingredients
For the crust:
1 1/2 sleeves of saltine crackers
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3 tablespoons granulated sugar

For the filling:
1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup lemon or lime juice or a mix of the two
Fresh whipped cream and coarse sea salt (I used Himalayan pink salt) for garnish

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Crush the crackers finely but not to dust, using a food processor or just your hands, and place them in a medium-sized bowl. Add the sugar, then knead in the butter until the crumbs come together like dough. Press into a 8 or 9-inch pie pan. Chill for 15 minutes, then bake for 18 minutes until the crust begins to color.

2. While the crust is cooling (it doesn't need to be cold), beat the egg yolks into the milk, then beat in the citrus juice. Make sure everything is completely combined. Pour into the shell and bake for 16 minutes until the filling has set. Let cool completely to room temperature and refrigerate at least 1 hour before slicing. Serve with fresh whipped cream and a sprinkling of sea salt.

Related recipes:
Florida Grapefruit-White Chocolate Pie
Key Lime Pie Popsicles
Lemon Chess Pie
Lemon-Ginger Meringue Tartlets
Lemon Meringue Pie
"Levon Helm's" Lemon Icebox Pie
Lime & Raspberry Italian Meringue Pie

Illustrations by Elizabeth Graeber

Orange Creamsicle Pie

Orange and cream--one of the best summer flavor combinations out there. When I was little, I used to enjoy it by way of a Dairy Queen Orange Mr. Misty Float-- an "orange" slushy with a scoop of vanilla soft serve; and of course, in the form of a Creamsicle. Not to be confused with the Dreamsicle, with its ice milk center, the more rich Creamsicle boasts a vanilla ice cream middle, coated with orange-flavored ice. 

Though the Creamsicle is an emblematic hot weather treat and National Creamsicle Day is apparently celebrated on August 14th, I made this pie version back in April, before I went away to the woods. There at the start of spring, I was still working through the box of Florida citrus I'd bought from a local school fundraiser, and needed to make a pie for my CSA members. I found this take on the Creamsicle, from Joy the Baker and adapted it only slightly. It's essentially an orange 'n' cream icebox pie and is just as refreshing at its popsicle counterpart. I think one member even put it in the freezer for a bit--the only thing missing was the popsicle stick.

Orange Creamsicle Pie

Adapted from Joy the Baker

Ingredients

For crust:

1 1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs

5 Tblsp. unsalted butter

1 Tblsp. sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

For filling:

3 1/2 Tblsp. cornstarch

1 c. sugar

1 Tblsp. orange zest

1/2 c. fresh squeezed orange juice

3 large egg yolks

1 c. milk

1 c. sour cream

1/4 c. unsalted butter, cut into chunks

1 c. heavy whipping cream (for whipped cream top)

Confectioner's sugar, to taste

Directions

For crust:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Pour graham cracker crumbs in a bowl and add melted butter, sugar, and salt until well mixed. 

2. Pat the buttery crumbs into a 9-inch pie pan, pressing mixture into the bottom and sides to form a pie crust. Place in oven and bake until crust is lightly browned, about 10-12 minutes. Place on a cooling rack and let cool to room temperature before adding the filling.

For filling:

1. Combine cornstarch, sugar, orange juice, zest, egg yolks, and milk in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook until thick, stirring constantly.

2. Add the chunks of butter and stir until they are completely melted. Let cool for 15 minutes, then add the sour cream, stirring to incorporate. Pour filling into the cooled graham cracker crust and place plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the pie. Place in the fridge and chill for at least 3 hours. 

3. Just before serving, whip the whipped cream in a small metal bowl with a few tablespoons of confectioner's sugar, if desired. Spoon on top of the pie, and serve still chilled.

Related recipes:

"Levon Helm's" Lemon Icebox Pie

Florida Grapefruit-White Chocolate Pie

Orange and Yogurt Tart

Shaker Orange Tarts

Passion Fruit Meringue Pie at a Backyard Family Party

It's been two Saturdays in a row of backyard cookouts here at the Dollhouse. Details and desserts of this weekend's fête are on their way, but last weekend's was a multi-excuse party for my rad housemate Bobbie's family, The Doughertys, who, among parents and four sisters were celebrating a 30th wedding anniversary, 2 graduations, and a return home from the Peace Corps.

As the family of honor staked down the yellow circus tent, lit grills, and strung streamers in the backyard, Kari and I, in perhaps the last Tarts by Tarts collaboration for a while, took to the the kitchen, charged with the making of desserts. We composed a versatile menu that included that pecan layer cake, key lime pie bars, and jumbleberry pavlova by Kari and lime tarts, and a peach-pecan pie and chocolate and peanut butter pretzel tart by me (more info on those coming soon!).

I also contributed a passion fruit meringue pie, elements of which were requested by both Bobbie and her older sister Cait. Cait had just returned from the Peace Corps in Panama, where she ate a lot of passion fruit, and Bobbie is a resident of the dollhouse, where she eats a lot of meringue...so I brought the two together in a passion fruit meringue pie with a macadamia nut-gingersnap crust.

This passion fruit pie is related to lilikoi (passion fruit in Hawaiian) pie, though where classic lilikoi pie generally features an airy chiffon filling, the pie I made calls for a denser curd, topped by a marshmallowy meringue. Combined with the macadamia nut crust I used for the Florida grapefruit-white chocolate pie, this is a tropical take on a classic favorite.

 Passion Fruit Meringue Pie with a Macadamia Nut Crust

Ingredients
For crust:
7 oz. roasted macadamia nuts
3/4 c. ground gingersnap cookies
1/4 c. dark brown sugar
1/4 c. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted

For filling:
1/4 c. lemon juice
2 3/4 c. passion fruit purée or nectar
1 c. + 2 Tblsp. sugar
1/4 c. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. salt
4 egg yolks (save whites for meringue)
3 Tbslp. unsalted butter cut into chunks

For meringue:

4 large egg whites, room temp. (can use whites from the yolks used for the curd)

1 c. sugar

2 Tblsp. corn syrup

1/8 tsp. salt

Directions

 For crust:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Finely chop nuts in food processor. Add ground gingersnap cookies, sugar, and butter and pulse until moist crumbs form. Press mixture firmly into bottom and sides of a greased and floured 9-inch pie pan. Bake crust 10 minutes or until golden. Let cool on a wire rack before adding the filling.

For filling:
1. Combine lemon juice, passion fruit purée, sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat until it begins to thicken. Add in egg yolks, whisking after each addition. Continue to cook until mixture coats the back of a spoon, or reads 185 degrees F on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat and stir in the butter. Let cool to room temperature. Once cooled, pour filling into pie crust, cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for about 2 hours.

2. Once curd has chilled, pour into the baked and cooled crust and refrigerate until the meringue is ready.

For meringue:
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Place egg whites in the bowl of a standing mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form and set aside. 

2. Stir sugar, corn syrup and 1/4 c. water in a medium saucepan over low heat until sugar dissolves. Insert a candy thermometer in the saucepan and increase heat to medium-high. Boil without stirring, occasionally swirling pan, until thermometer registers 238 degrees F, 6-8 minutes. Remove from heat.

3. Meanwhile, beat whites again briefly until soft peaks form. Slowly pour hot sugar mixture down the side of the bowl into the whites and beat until meringue is firm and has a glossy sheen.  Continue to beat until cool, about 4 minutes. Remove pie from the fridge and spoon meringue over the passion fruit curd, making sure the meringue seals the edge of the pie. Sculpt decoratively with the back of a spoon.

4. Bake until meringue is toasted, about 3-5 minutes.  Chill pie for about a half-hour before serving. Keep in the fridge until it's gone.

There was a bountiful Southern-style cookout with pulled pork and brisket, potato salad & slaw, cornbread and deviled eggs, keg beer and tequila shots (mostly enjoyed by the aunts). Then after an interlude of backyard micro-pong, puzzles, and madlibs, we warmed the pie, topped the pavlova, and paraded out the desserts, which quickly coralled everyone--pongers and shot-takers alike (as you can see in the photo below, which I believe features three Dougherty sisters, and definitely features lots of pretty gals in pretty dresses).

If you were smart, like Scott here, you took a little sliver of each, and paced yourself in the Dessert Enjoyment Zone (DEZ) so the impending sugar crash didn't keep you from a torch-lit game of Catch Phrase and a late-night jaunt out to a Mt. Pleasant dance party.

DC's Best Pie!

It's the peak of summer, the farmers' markets are teeming with local berries and fresh stone fruit, and NPR just launched #pie week, meaning there's an utter explosion of pies and tarts on the interwebs. Aside from our usual blogging and baking, last week Kari and I got in on the action when Nothing-in-the-House's strawberry crème tart and Tarts by Tarts were featured as the cover photo and one of DC's best pie bakers on Refinery29. They also mentioned the pie blog's lemon icebox pie and Florida grapefruit-white chocolate pie. Oh so nice! We're in great company too, with Alexandria's Buzz Bakery, Baltimore-based Dangerously Delicious Pies, and farmers' market stand Whisked also in the mix.

At the moment, Tarts by Tarts' future together is sadly uncertain, and we'll be taking a hiatus as Kari is Maine-bound for a goat cheese-making apprenticeship (I will miss my tartner so!), we'll continue to keep you updated on our current baking and future projects via the Tarts by Tarts site. In the meantime, I've been scheming plans to keep the Tarts by Tarts spirit alive in a new endeavor--a pie CSA? pop-up shop? baked goods bicycle delivery service? For more on those developments, keep your eyes glued to this space, as well as on the Nothing-in-the-House Facebook & Twitter for upcoming projects. As always, feel free to e-mail us at tartsbytarts at gmail dot com or me at nothinginthehousepie at gmail dot com if you're interested in collaborating, catering service, or placing a one-off order. We'd love to work with you, whether at a bean suppa on a Maine farm, a rooftop deck party in DC, or anywhere in between.

Johnisha's Pistachio Blood Orange Tart

I had the luck of meeting Johnisha Levi at the LongHouse Scholars Program last summer. Johnisha is a lawyer-turned-pastry chef and her beautiful writing--from a hilarious ode to our Kitchen Aid toaster in the form of a "Rollercoaster of Love" parody to a thoughtful musing on kitchen gadgets and the loss of the tactile experience of cooking--would often bring the other scholars and the rest of the staff to tears and fits of laughter when she read aloud in our living room workshop sessions. She's worked for America's Test Kitchen and now is the Assistant Editor with The Weiser Kitchen. I'm very excited to share some of Johnisha's writing and recipe for these Pistachio Blood Orange Tarts, which just might provide sufficient succor for this (hopefully) last bout of snow we're due to get. You can follow more of Johnisha's work at The Weiser Kitchen and at @johnishalev.

I think I speak for everyone, from Atlanta to Boston, when I say that this winter, we’re all a little snow fatigued. (And yes, it is technically spring, but I’m not so sure that winter is done with us although we are more than done with winter.) On unforgivingly frigid days filled with rounds of snow shoveling (and without the benefit of stay-at-home snow days in New England), I can think of nothing more cheering to eat than a blood orange—its mottled skin concealing pulp the color of a deep crimson sunset. The striking hue of a blood orange is due to anthocyanins, antioxidant pigments that accumulate in response to plunging nighttime temperatures in growing regions of the Mediterranean. So I guess some good things can come of the cold . . .

The last few months, I’ve noticed chefs in Boston using blood oranges in every course from starters to desserts, as well as mixologists employing blood orange liqueur and syrups in the craftiest of cocktails. A salad combination of blood oranges and pistachio got me thinking about a way to bring these ingredients together in pastry.

I started with a pistachio pate sucrée, my adaptation of a go-to tart dough recipe. (The original Pierre Hermé recipe uses almond meal, but pistachios have always been my favorite, so I tweaked the recipe accordingly.) Blood orange curd folded into a stabilized whipped cream makes for a just-firm-enough-to-slice yet creamy tart filling. I add the orange zest before cooking the curd because it gives the curd a more robust flavor and a slight bitterness that I enjoy, but I prefer to strain it out for a silkier end texture.

To further tie together the components and to create some color contrast, I add some sliced blood oranges and a sprinkling of pistachio meal on top of the filling as garnish. Because the flesh of blood oranges is so stunning, I carefully shave away the skin and the pith, and slice crosswise to create wagon wheels spaced slightly apart. This allows the pale orange tart filling to peek through. If you like, you could instead buy additional blood oranges to cover the entire surface with blood orange suprêmes.

A word on tart size. I prefer to use a 7-inch tart pan because it is perfect in a two-party household that consumes rich desserts in petite portions, but feel free to adjust the recipe for a 9-inch tart.  The crust recipe below makes more than enough tart dough for a larger dessert. Just scale the curd and stabilized cream recipes up accordingly—a 1.5 recipe should work nicely with perhaps a little left over to lick the spoon. 

Pistachio Blood Orange Tart

Crust adapted from Desserts by Pierre Herme’ // Blood Orange Cream Filling adapted from Chez Panisse Desserts by Lindsey Shere and The Pie and Pastry Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum

Ingredients

For the crust:

(Note:  This recipe makes enough dough for 3 to 4, 7-inch tart shells. To get the best result, make the full recipe and freeze the rest of the dough for future tarts. Or make more than one tart at a time.)

10 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature

1 ½ cups (6 ounces) confectioner’s sugar, sifted

¾ cup pistachio meal

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs, room temperature

3 ¼ cups (16.25 ounces) all-purpose flour

For the blood orange cream tart filling and garnish:

7 strained tablespoons of blood orange juice (from 2 blood oranges)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Zest from 2 blood oranges

1 large egg

4 large egg yolks

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

1 teaspoon powdered gelatin

1 tablespoon cold water

½ cup chilled heavy cream

2 teaspoons powdered sugar

2 ounces melted white chocolate (optional)

For  garnish:

2 blood oranges  

pistachio meal or finely chopped pistachios

Directions

To make the crust:

1) In a food processor, pulse the butter until it is creamy, light in color, and free of lumps. Pulse in the sugar and salt until thoroughly blended. Next, pulse in the pistachio meal, followed by the eggs with the vanilla, ensuring that all ingredients are uniformly incorporated before proceeding. Add the flour last, processing just until the dough begins to come together in a ball. Divide into 3 to 4 portions, flatten into disks, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate to harden before rolling. You can also freeze this dough until ready to use. Just allow 30 to 45 minutes to bring to room temperature. (Note: You can make this dough in a stand mixer instead, making sure to keep the mixture on the lowest speed for the very last step when you incorporate the flour, so as not to overwork the dough and toughen it).

2) Because this dough is very delicate, I recommend rolling it out between sheets of plastic wrap. That way, you have to use minimal  flour (thereby avoiding toughening it) and you can more easily transfer it in order to line the tart shell. If the dough splits while you are lining the tart shell, no need to fear—just press it back together.  Once the tart shell is lined, freeze the dough before baking. This helps it hold its shape.

3) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line the tart pan with foil, carefully pressing it into the corners of the tart pan before filling it with rice, beans, or pie weights. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes, until the crust is set and lightly colored. Remove the foil and pie weights, and bake for another 8 to 10 minutes until the crust is slightly golden around the edges. Transfer the pie shell to a wire rack to cool completely before removing from the tart shell and filling. (Note: the time I provide is for baking the shell straight from the freezer).

To make the blood orange cream:

1) In a non-reactive saucepan, combine the egg, yolks, and sugar, and whisk to combine. Next, add the blood orange juice, lemon juice,  and zest to the saucepan and whisk to combine. Last, add the butter to the saucepan. Over low heat, stir continuously until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon and it reaches 180 degrees F. Do not let the mixture boil. If you notice any steam starting to rise from the pan, briefly remove it from the heat while continuing to stir. Immediately strain into a heatproof bowl, cover the surface with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until completely cool.

2) When the curd is completely cooled, make the stabilized whipped cream. In a small heatproof container, sprinkle the gelatin over the surface of the cold water. Allow the gelatin to sit, or bloom, for five minutes. Heat the gelatin and water over a water bath, or carefully within a microwave, until the gelatin granules are completely dissolved. Set aside.

3) In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the chilled cream and powdered sugar. On medium speed, beat the cream with a whisk attachment until soft peaks form. Stop the mixture and check the gelatin. It should still be dissolved and slightly warm to the touch. If it isn’t, carefully reheat. While the cream is beating on medium low, quickly add the gelatin, whipping just to incorporate. (If you over whip, the cream will become grainy.). Fold the curd into the stabilized cream.

Note: If you find that the small volume of cream is difficult to whip in your stand mixer because the cream does not reach far enough up the bowl, you can either whip by hand, or double the recipe and then just use half of the resulting stabilized cream in the tart filling.

To assemble the tart:

 1) Using an offset spatula, smear the bottom of the shell with a thin layer of the melted white chocolate. (This is an optional step, and if using the white chocolate, the layer should be thin enough to see through so that it doesn’t become too challenging to break through the tart shell as you eat.) Fill the tart shell with the blood orange cream and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving. When ready to serve, carefully remove the skin and pith from two blood oranges. Slice them crosswise to create wagon wheels to garnish the top of the tart as desired. You can glaze the fruit on top with apricot jammed thinned with water if you wish the fruit to appear fresh for more than a day. Finish with a dusting of chopped pistachios or pistachio meal. 

Related recipes:

Blood Orange Chess Pie

Florida Grapefruit-White Chocolate Pie 

Orange & Yogurt Tart

Rustic Blood Orange Tart with Cream Cheese Crust

Photos, words and recipe by Johnisha Levi. Thank you, Johnisha!