Blood orange tartelettes

Hello and nice to see you again!

Long time since the last post, but finally we are settled in our new apartment and with the kitchen working in full speed! I am really enjoying spending my sundays trying out recipes and getting used to my new oven, new space... Today was particularly productive: home made bread, granola, a cake and these juicy tartelettes for dessert.

I have a fascination for blood oranges, the color is just wonderful and the tart taste... when I was in Sicily I drank a glass of fresh pressed blood orange juice every morning, they defiantly have the best oranges, whatever the type.

Here I used a spelt puff pastry (store bought), but any kind will do.

Blood Orange tartelettes

For the blood orange curd
100 mL blood orange juice
zest of one blood orange
100 g of brown sugar
50 g butter
3 eggs

To top the tartelettes
1 blood orange peeled and thinly sliced
1-2 tablespoon of honey, warmed up

Start by preparing the curd: in a small heat the blood orange juice, zest and butter until it melts. Add the sugar and let simmer until it dissolves. Mix the eggs and add to the previous mixture. Continue mixing until it starts simmer and the curd thickens. Set aside to cool down.

Put the puff pastry in the tartelette form cutting any excess pastry along the sides. Place the curd in the forms until half way full. Decorate with the orange slices and brush them with the warm honey. Bake at 200°C for 15-20 minutes. Let cool down totally before serving.

Coconut and mandarine cake

My birthday was on the end of July, and usually where I work, we always take a cake for the colleagues when there is this type of celebration. Happens that in my working place I have a lot of colleagues which demanded for at least 2 huge cakes.

Here is one of them, a very fresh cake good for the summer (or for the lucky ones who happen to have summer where they live, because here it´s something virtual).

The recipe was adapted from Dr. Oetker.

Coconut and mandarine cake

Bottom cake dough
60 g butter
75 g of sugar (I used brown sugar)
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract (I used homemade one)
2 eggs
100 g cake flour
1 tablespoon of backing powder
25 g of maizena

Cream mixture
150 g of pealed and skinned mandarine pieces (can be canned also)
250 g of creme fraiche
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
50 g of maizena
80 g of sugar
(in the recipe it asked for a package powder for vanilla pudding, I opted to use the maizena and vanilla extract)

Coconut topping
100 g of grated coconut
50 g of sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 egg
1 tablespoon of milk

Preparation

Start by pre-heating the oven to 180°C and put some butter and flour in the springform.
For the bottom cake dough, mix the butter with the sugar until creamy. Add the eggs one by one mixing each egg before adding the next one. Slowly add the flour, maizena, backing powder and vanilla extract mixing it well. Place the dough in the backing form and bake for 12 to 15 minutes. After this time take it from the oven and let it cool slightly while you prepare the cream mixture.
For the cream mixture, mix the creme fraiche with the vanilla extract, sugar and maizena until well mixed. Distribute the mandarine pieces on the top of the previously baked cake dough and then add the creme fraiche mixture on the top. Bake again for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile prepare the coconut topping by mixing all the ingredients together. Spread it trough the top the baked cream cake and bake it one last time for 20 minutes, until the coconut topping is slightly brown.
Let it cool down completely and release from the springform.
Enjoy!