Orange Tian

This month's Daring Baker's Challenge was hosted by Jennifer.  She decided to do the 'Orange Tian' adapted from Alain Ducasse's recipes. Golly! It looked intimidating, and I'd never even heard of it.

The Tian is made up of several layers and steps.
1) Pate Sablee - This serves as the base, its like a cookie of sorts.
2) Orange Marmalade - This is spread on the cookie to start the 'oranginess' of the whole tian.
3) Whipped Cream - This acts as the next layer, it is whipped along with bits of the orange marmalade.
4) Orange Segments - This last layer is the piece de resistance! Segments of oranges are arranged to make the final layer.
5) Grapefruit Caramel - The original recipe calls for orange. I wanted to use grapefruit as I thought the bitterness would be interesting against the sweetness of the orange. Boy did it work well :)

For the Pate Sablee:

• 2 medium-sized egg yolks at room temperature
• Granulated sugar 6 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon; 2.8 oz; 80 grams
• Vanilla extract ½ teaspoon
• Unsalted butter ¼ cup + 3 tablespoons; 3.5 oz; 100 grams ice cold, cubed
• Salt 1/3 teaspoon; 2 grams
• All-purpose flour 1.5 cup + 2 tablespoons; 7 oz; 200 grams
• Baking powder 1 teaspoon ; 4 grams 

Directions

1. Put the flour, baking powder, ice cold cubed butter and salt in a food processor fitted with a steel blade.
2. 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.
3. 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 homogeneous ball of dough. Form into a disc, cover with plastic wrap and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
4. Preheat your oven to 350
5. Roll out the dough onto a lightly floured surface until you obtain a ¼ inch thick circle.
6. Cut out dough circles to suit your bowl/cookie cutter of choice.
7. Bake for 20 minutes or till they are just golden.

I had enough to make a normal family style (cake size) pate, as well as 2 small pates. My husband liked it so much that I used the left over dough to make 4-5 small cookies for him to have with tea.
For the Marmalade:

1. Freshly pressed orange juice ¼ cup + 3 tablespoons
2. 1 large orange used to make orange slices
3. Cold water to cook the orange slices
4. Pectin 1tsp
5. Granulated sugar - Half the weight of the oranges. 

Directions

• 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. I simply used the old cooled water around the garden. I've seen that the bitterness and orange essence can be used as a natural pesticide. So the water would be great!
• Drain slices and cool. Then finely mince them (using a knife or a food processor).
• Original marmalade recipes, call for weighing the orange pieces and using an equal amount of sugar. I thought that was way too much. So I just eye balled it to be half of the sugar and did the taste test to guide me. I don't like things too sugary.
• In a pot over medium heat, add the orange pieces, sugar, the orange juice and the pectin. Cook until the mixture reaches a jam consistency (10-15 minutes).
• Transfer to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge.

For the Orange Segments:
For this step you will need 6 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:

1. Granulated sugar 1 cup
2. Grapefruit juice 1 cup

Directions

• Place the sugar in a pan on medium heat and begin heating it.
• Once the sugar starts to bubble and foam, slowly add the juice. As soon as the mixture starts boiling, remove from the heat and pour half of the mixture over the orange segments.
• 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). You can then spoon it over the orange tians. 

For the Whipped Cream:

1. Heavy whipping cream 1 cup
2. 3 tablespoons of hot water
3. 1 tsp Gelatine
4. 1 tablespoon of confectioner's sugar
5. Orange marmalade (see recipe above) 1 tablespoon 

Directions

• In a small bowl, add the gelatine and hot water, stirring well until the gelatine dissolves. Let the gelatine cool to room temperature. This hardens very fast, so I would really suggest making the gelatine mixture while you are half way done with the the whipping cream. 
• 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.

Note - If you've never used gelatine before like me - beware IT STINKS!   

Assembling the Dessert:

1. Make sure you have some room in your freezer.
2. Line a small tray or baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone sheet. Lay out 6 cookie cutters onto the parchment paper/silicone.
3. Drain the orange segments on a kitchen towel.
4. Arrange the orange segments at the bottom of each cookie cutter. Make sure the segments all touch either and that there are no gaps. (This will be your top layer when you present, so create the pattern as you wish).
5. Once you have neatly arranged one layer of orange segments at the bottom of each cookie cutter, 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 so there is room for dough circle.
6. Using a butter knife spread a small even layer of orange marmalade on the cool pate sablees.
7. Carefully place the pates (the side of dough covered in marmalade should be the side touching the whipping cream). Gently press on the bottom of the pates to make sure the dessert is compact.
8. Place the desserts to set in the freezer to set for 10 minutes. If you are making family style, you might need to freeze for a longer time. I would suggest at least 3-4 hours.
9. Using a small knife, gently go around the edges of the cookie cutter to make sure the dessert will be easy to unmold. Gently place your serving plate on top of a dessert (on top of the circle of dough) and turn the plate over. Gently remove the cookie cutter, add a spoonful of caramel sauce and serve immediately. 

This was a very interesting challenge. I think the best part of the dish was the caramel. I soaked the orange segments in a grapefruit caramel which was heavenly.

Overall a great tasting dish, I made a big family style version and a couple of small ones as well. The ease in handling the small tians is undoubtedly the reason for making them in small cups. The bigger tian took overnight to completely set and then the orange slices were still frozen when I took it out. Even after a couple of hours of defrosting, there were still ice crystals holding on to the oranges. So I wouldn't make the family style again. I did however, enjoy the smaller tians thoroughly :)