Blood Orange and Black Sesame Tart

Plus a couple cookbooks you should check out

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Hello, Happy Friday!

Another week and another dusty and loud week at the house. I have been stuck at home trying to get across the finish line of a big project this week, and so it’s been me against the noise. I reckon our builder must think I am crazy to be working through the renovation work. At one point this week there were two builders outside the window of my temporary kitchen as two other builders were in the attic space above my head installing a steel beam. I thought it was a rather funny image, me making a tart and them literally renovating the house around me. I did catch one of the builders watching what I was doing as I filmed this week's recipe!

We have also gotten to a fun stage of the build where we are ordering the tiles and the paint, and we are finalising how we want the space to look. It is all very exciting. I can’t wait to share more with you soon.

French Bakes Made Simple

I do have a little bit of news, something I wasn’t going to share for a while. But, since I’ve already received some questions from you guys about it, I thought it was time to share it with you. 10 years ago I wrote a book called Patisserie Made Simple, and to this day it is one of my favourite projects to have worked on. The book sadly went out of print many years ago, and so it hasn’t been available for quite a while. The news is that my publisher is putting out an anniversary edition later this year, on August the 28th to be specific. The book has a new name, French Bakes Made Simple, and a new design, but the contents of the book are the same as the previous edition. I’d started to get questions about the book from some eagle-eyed readers specifically about if it was a new book or a reprint, so I wanted to clarify. So for those asking, no, I don’t have a new book coming out this year, but yes, this is a reprint of my previous book, just with a new design and new name. I absolutely love this book, so I am happy to see it getting a new life. If the book sounds up your street, you can pre-order a copy anywhere books are sold.

Sweet

Talking of books, I haven’t actually reviewed any in a hot second, but one popped through my letterbox this week that I wanted to tell you about because I think you’ll love it. The book is 'Sweet: The Secret To The Best Desserts' by Alexina Anatole. The first thing you’ll notice about this book is that it is absolutely beautiful. The photography and the styling are top-notch. As a total cookbook nerd who loves design and photography, this particularly stood out to me: the imagery really grabs you and sells the idea that everything is incredibly good and that you should immediately head to the kitchen and bake. The design is simple but effective and with a very pleasing colour palette and typography (see, I told you I was a nerd). The second thing you’ll notice is that the recipes involve a wonderful palette of ingredients and flavours. The book is divided up into chapters based around a single flavour: strawberries, brown sugar, peaches, etc. Within those chapters, that flavour is used in a variety of ways, some more traditional, some with more modern and interesting flavour combos. The book is also designed to help you make the best desserts you can, so it is littered with tips on creating desserts with the right balance of flavour, temperature, and texture. When I think about good cookbooks, I have two categories that can make a book a worthy purchase: cookability and newness. Is the book providing recipes I really want to make, or does the book challenge me or teach me something new? Some books can teach you a lot and provide interest and value that way, but you may not cook from them that often. Some books can provide you with lots of recipes that you’ll love, but they don’t add much of anything else; they don’t teach you much beyond the recipe. Some books manage to do both. This is one of those books that adds extra value. You’ll feel like a more confident baker after reading and baking from this book, and you’ll have exciting and interesting recipes to boot.

If you’re in the UK, the book is out now; if you’re in Australia, I believe the book is out in May, and unfortunately, if you’re in North America, you’ll have to wait until Nov of this year. Elsewhere I couldn’t find any information; apologies.

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I don't know about the rest of the UK, but London has been bleak recently, a constant dull grey everywhere. No blue skies, just depressingly grey and cold. I’m over it. If it hasn’t been clear from the last few weeks, I have been using baking as an escape, trying to make comforting dishes or bright, citrussy desserts to bring a bit of sunshine into the cold winter months. Well, today is a bit more of the same, something really bright to try and trick my brain into more of a summery outlook. For that I went in search of oranges.

You might remember my attempts at making an orange curd that was still bright and zingy and not overpowered by the sugar, eggs, and butter. In that case I used powdered citric acid to achieve a brilliantly zingy curd. Today's recipe is for a tart, and whilst I could have used a similar format to make the filling really vibrant, I went down a different route instead.

I am sure you’ve heard of Key Lime Pie, the classic American pie that hails from Florida. But did you know that before the reign of the key lime pie, Florida was known for a different dish? The sour orange pie? Made in a similar way to its key lime sibling, a sour orange pie took advantage of Florida's most famous export, oranges. The problem, like with making an orange curd, is that the oranges we most commonly eat just aren’t very tart. Thankfully, citrus, and specifically oranges, come in a world of different varieties, including what are sometimes known as sour oranges, or marmalade oranges. This type of orange, most commonly the Seville variety, is tangy and bitter and much more acidic than a regular navel orange, so much so that they are rarely eaten raw. Turns out they are perfect for baking with. When the zest and juice were used to make the filling of this tart, it balanced out perfectly. The result was sweet but incredibly tangy, like a beautiful lemon tart but with the complexity of Seville oranges. In simpler terms, absolutely delicious. And while you could absolutely make a simple orange tart in the style of a Floridian sour orange pie, I had something different in mind.

A while back I saw someone (I can't remember who, sorry) make incredible-looking black sesame and orange cookies, and the flavour combo lodged itself at the back of my brain, and I was itching to use it in a recipe. This seemed like the perfect opportunity. To bring the two flavours together, I knew immediately I wanted to add a black sesame praline layer. The sesame is lightly toasted and then blended in a food processor with some shards of caramel until a paste is formed. This is helped along with a little sesame oil and a pinch of salt. The flavour is incredibly rich and nutty, almost like a sweet tahini but with added texture. The praline paste can be quite runny, so to make sure we can add the orange layer on top, I like to add just a small touch of milk chocolate to the praline and then chill it down. The chocolate gives the praline enough body that it holds its shape when slices of the tart are cut, and it does so without overpowering the flavour of the sesame.

Now this could be more than enough for this dish, but I couldn’t resist adding one more thing, a touch of whipped white chocolate ganache. This element is one of my favourites, and it's an incredibly useful technique to learn. Really, it is a cross between whipped cream and a traditional ganache. It uses more cream than a traditional ganache, which means, once chilled, it can be whipped. It is light and airy like whipped cream, but it has more body, more flavour. It is the perfect thing to use a final flourish on a whole variety of recipes and can be very easily adapted to fit the recipe you’re pairing it with. You can make versions with all manner of chocolate, but today we're using white chocolate and vanilla. For some whipped ganaches, I like to add a very small amount of gelatine. Don’t worry, the taste isn’t affected or has any hint of a jelly-like texture; it simply stabilises the finished cream. If you want, you can happily leave out the gelatine.

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