I made this tart last weekend because it looked amazing and I had lots of fresh red navels. Was I bummed when the oranges, caramelized and gorgeous, were inedible! I had to cut the peels off every single one. I overlapped the slices on the tart shell (and I didn't need nine oranges worth). The tart looked dry and the orange slices were bitter rather than sweet. I made a glaze using marmalade and some orange liqueur and poured that over the tart. Then I sprinkled it with coarse sugar to give it a lovely sparkle. Served with vanilla ice cream and minced crystallized ginger, it made a tasty dessert, but it sure was a lot of work.
Roasted Orange Tart
Credit: Christopher Hirsheimer
SERVES 8
To make the oranges soft and marmalade-like, we roasted them separately, then laid them into the crisp crust.
FOR THE CRUST:
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp. sugar
Pinch salt
8 tbsp. cold butter, cut into pieces
FOR THE ORANGES:
9 valencia or navel oranges, sliced into thin rounds
4 tbsp. honey
2 cups freshly squeezed orange juice
1/2 cup sugar
1. For the crust: Sift together flour, sugar, and salt into a mixing bowl. Use a pastry cutter or two knives to work butter into flour until it resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle in up to 3 tbsp. ice water, stirring dough with a fork until it just begins to hold together. Press dough firmly into a rough ball, then transfer to a lightly floured surface. Give the dough several quick kneads with the heel of your hand to form a smooth dough, shape into a disk, then wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 1 hour.
2. Preheat oven to 375°. Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface into an 11'' round. Fit dough into a 9'' fluted false-bottomed tart pan, then run the rolling pin over top of pan to remove any overhanging dough. Prick bottom of dough lightly with the tines of a fork. Line dough with parchment paper, then add pie weights or dried beans. Bake until edge is golden, about 40 minutes. Remove paper and weights, and continue baking until crust is deep golden, 10-15 minutes more. Set crust aside to cool.
3. Lower heat to 325°. Arrange half the orange slices in an overlapping pattern in the bottom of a 16'' x 12'' roasting pan, then drizzle with 2 tbsp. of the honey. Repeat with remaining slices and 2 tbsp. honey. Pour orange juice over oranges, cover pan with aluminum foil, and roast until rinds are soft and plump, about 1 1/2 hours.
4. Remove pan from oven and increase heat to 375°. Sprinkle oranges with sugar and roast, uncovered, until oranges are very soft and browned around the edges and the pan juices are thick and syrupy, about 50 minutes more. Arrange orange slices in prepared crust, then drizzle with pan syrup. Allow tart to rest for 1 hour before serving.
Ratings & Reviews (3)
Seemed like a neat idea for a tart. However, I was suspicious from the start. Unfortunately, the results matched my fears. Not only was it time consuming, but it was essentially inedible, due to my aversion to the bitter peel. There must be some way to make the peel sweeter and more edible. Reading the previous review led me to laugh. Perhaps marmalade-loving grandpa will eat it up.
the recipe calls for valencia oranges - the skin and pith is very thin and not so bitter; these are oranges with which to make marmalade, skin and all. if you're using pithy, pedestrian oranges, then remove the skin and pith; slice the oranges into thick rounds and proceed as follows. you'll need more than the number of oranges called for in the recipe.
Roasted Orange Tart
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