I was thrilled when I found out this month’s challenger was a Montreal Food Blogger who is part of the Blogger Foodie Dinner group we now organize. Yay someone I actually know in person. The 2010 March Daring Baker’s challenge was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings. She chose Orange Tian as the challenge for this month, a dessert based on a recipe from Alain Ducasse’s Cooking School in Paris.

Hmm, interesting challenge I thought. Not that difficult I thought. A breeze, I’ll come up with something out of the visual world. Well then I had a couple of personal work projects overtake my life and I was in high stress mode for about 3 weeks and I could not give this challenge the appropriate attention. I did it all but I did it too quick. Visually it is a flop for me. But taste was awesome. I am not proud of this one and hesitated showing pics but I will. Even the best chef have the occasional flop. I can be (s0metimes) modest. I do think the pics came out better then normal, should have done a better background lol.

Now what I wanted to do is half the recipe but instead of doing 3 individual rounds (the full recipe would have been 6) I wanted to stack them. I found the perfect tomato sauce can for it. It was going to be 5 inches high and narrow, like a round sky scrapper. The top two fruit layers I was going to use strawberries and for the last one blackberries (all on stupid price special this week he he). Now here is where I think it went wrong. Normally you would freeze 10 min so since my shape was so different I left it 30 min. When I unmolded slowly the bottom tier spread out….there was no turning back and remolding. I hope for the best. The top tier fell off so I took it off and ended up with a messy 2 tier Tiang.

Below are my quickie notes, if you want the full recipe in detail click here.

Preparation time:
– Pate Sablee: 20 min to make, 30 min to rest, 15 min to roll out, 20 min to bake
– Marmalade: 20 minutes to make, 30 minutes to blanch
– Orange segments: 20 minutes, overnight to sit
– Caramel: 15 minutes, overnight to sit
– Whipped Cream: 15 minutes
– Assembling: 20 minutes; Freezer to Set: 10 minutes

For the Pate Sablee:

2 medium-sized egg yolks at room temperature
granulated sugar 6 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon
vanilla extract ½ teaspoon
Unsalted butter ¼ cup + 3 tablespoons

Salt 1/3 teaspoon; 2 grams
All-purpose flour 1.5 cup + 2 tablespoons
baking powder 1 teaspoon

Put the flour, baking powder, ice cold cubed butter and salt in a food processor fitted with a steel blade. In a separate bowl, add the eggs yolks, vanilla extract and sugar and beat with a whisk until the mixture is pale. Pour the egg mixture in the food processor. Process until the dough just comes together. If you find that the dough is still a little too crumbly to come together, add a couple drops of water and process again to form a homogenous ball of dough. Form into a disc, cover with plastic wrap and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes. Preheat your oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit. Roll out the dough onto a lightly floured surface until you obtain a ¼ inch thick circle. Using your cookie cutter, cut out circles of dough and place on a parchment (or silicone) lined baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes or until the circles of dough are just golden.

For the Marmalade:

Freshly pressed orange juice ¼ cup + 3 tablespoons
1 large orange used to make orange slices
cold water to cook the orange slices
pectin 5 grams
sugar: use the same weight as the weight of orange slices once they are cooked

Finely slice the orange. Place the orange slices in a medium-sized pot filled with cold water. Simmer for about 10 minutes, discard the water, re-fill with cold water and blanch the oranges for another 10 minutes. Blanch the orange slices 3 times. This process removes the bitterness from the orange peel, so it is essential to use a new batch of cold water every time when you blanch the slices. Once blanched 3 times, drain the slices and let them cool. Once they are cool enough to handle, finely mince them using a knife. Weigh the slices and use the same amount of granulated sugar. If you don’t have a scale, you can place the slices in a cup measurer and use the same amount of sugar. In a pot over medium heat, add the minced orange slices, the sugar you just weighed, the orange juice and the pectin. Cook until the mixture reaches a jam consistency 10-15 min. Transfer to a bowl, cover and put in fridge.

For the Orange Segments: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG5mcEEBlcI

For this step you will need 8 oranges. Cut the oranges into segments over a shallow bowl and make sure to keep the juice. Add the segments to the bowl with the juice.

For the Caramel:

granulated sugar 1 cup
orange juice 1.5 cups + 2 tablespoons

Place the sugar in a pan on medium heat and begin heating it. Once the sugar starts to bubble and foam, slowly add the orange juice. As soon as the mixture starts boiling, remove from the heat and pour half of the mixture over oranges. Reserve the other half of the caramel mixture in a small bowl — you will use this later to spoon over the finished dessert. When the dessert is assembled and setting in the freezer, heat the kept caramel sauce in a small saucepan over low heat until it thickens and just coats the back of a spoon (about 10 minutes). then spoon it over the orange tians.

For the Whipped Cream:

heavy whipping cream 1 cup
3 tablespoons of hot water
1 tsp Gelatine
1 tablespoon of confectioner’s sugar
orange marmalade (see recipe above) 1 tablespoon

In a small bowl, add the gelatine and hot water, stirring well until the gelatine dissolves. Let the gelatine cool to room temperature while you make the whipped cream. Combine the cream in a chilled mixing bowl. Whip the cream using a hand mixer on low speed until the cream starts to thicken for about one minute. Add the confectioner sugar. Increase the speed to medium-high. Whip the cream until the beaters leave visible (but not lasting) trails in the cream, then add the cooled gelatine slowly while beating continuously. Continue whipping until the cream is light and fluffy and forms soft peaks. Transfer the whipped cream to a bowl and fold in the orange marmalade.

Assembling the Dessert:

Line a small tray or baking sheet with parchment. Lay out 6 cookie cutters onto the parchment paper/silicone. Drain the orange segments on a kitchen towel. Arrange the orange segments at the bottom. Make sure the segments all touch either and that there are no gaps. Then add a couple spoonfuls of whipped cream and gently spread it so that it fills the cookie cutter in an even layer. Leave about 1/4 inch at the top. Spread a small even layer of orange marmalade on each circle of dough. Carefully place a circle of dough over each ring. Gently press on the circle of dough to make sure the dessert is compact. Place in the freezer to set for 10 minutes. Using a small knife, gently go around the edges, place your serving plate on top (dough up) and turn the plate over. Gently remove the cookie cutter, add a spoonful of caramel sauce and serve immediately.