Daring Baker's Challenge, March 2010: Orange Tian

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.

An Orange What?! Yeah, that was my first reaction too. However, this tian business turned out to be a very pleasant surprise indeed. So what exactly is a tian then? In some cultures, a tian is a well known dish made out of layered ingredients. Although it might seem strange in this particular case, the tian can be thought of as a casserole with a specific arrangement of components, served either hot or cold. Tians can be composed of all sorts of different ingredients, ranging from fruit, pastry, nuts, cake layers and chocolate to vegetables and even meat. In fact, most popular tians are the savory ones, such as a traditional French onion tian. Tians are usually simple to make and prepare. With both plenty of flavor and visual appeal, they make an excellent main dish or, in this case, a scrumptious dessert.


Orange tian is made of different layers: a pate sablee with an orange marmalade, followed by a flavored whipped cream and topped with orange segments and a caramel and orange sauce. It wouldn't really be a challenge if we didn't have to make all of the components from scratch. Yup, even the marmalade. That's probably the reason I kept postponing the challenge until the very last day. However, I was quite surprised when I realized that the steps aren't really that complicated and, once I got into it, it was all over in no time at all. In the end, I was really happy with how this dessert turned out. From the moment I saw the recipe, I knew this was something I'll love and so I decided to stick to the original recipe. I was absolutely right. This is just the perfect dessert for me - fruity, light, creamy and not too sweet. And the marmalade is just so darn good! Although it is made with whole oranges, there is not even a hint of bitterness. I've been enjoying it for breakfast for the last few days and I'm loving it. That's something I'll definitely make again, but I think I'll use just a little less sugar next time.


The only thing I decided to change was the whipped cream layer of the dessert. I'm not a big fan of gelatin and try to avoid it whenever I can. Since I had some leftover Mascarpone cheese I decided to use it instead. The filling turned out perfectly. It was firm enough to handle, but had a really nice spreadable consistency and a beautifully creamy flavor. I wrote down the changes I made and I'm sharing this adapted version with you.



The only thing I'm not happy about are the photos. As I was preparing for the photo shoot, and the whole time during it, my phone just wouldn't stop ringing, so I spent more time talking on the phone than shooting. Some of the conversations were not pleasant at all, which resulted in me being quite nervous and distracted. By the time the phone crisis was over, I had no patience or time to do the job properly. I was really disappointed. But hey, not everything can be perfect, right? The only thing that matters in the end is that the dessert was a success and that we loved it. So, a big thanks goes to our hostess Jennifer for this wonderful challenge.


Orange Tian
makes 6

For the Pate Sablee
2 medium-sized egg yolks, at room temperature
80 g granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
100 grams ice cold Unsalted butter, cubed
1/3 teaspoon salt
200 grams ll-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

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 homogeneous 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 ° F(175°C).

Roll out the dough onto a lightly floured surface until you obtain a 1/4 inch (5-6mm) 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
100 ml freshly squeezed orange juice
1 large orange, sliced (slice the whole orange, with the peel)
cold water to cook the orange slices
5 g pectin
granulated sugar - 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 or a food processor).

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 minutes).

Transfer to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge.

For the Orange Segments
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
200 g granulated sugar
360 ml freshly squeezed orange juice

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 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
100g Mascarpone cheese
120ml heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon of confectioner's sugar
1 tablespoon orange marmalade

Combine the Mascarpone cheese, sugar and orange marmalade in a medium-sized bowl and cream using a hand mixer. Add the whipping cream and continue mixing on medium-high speed until the cream thickens to a spreadable consistency.

Assembling the Dessert
Make sure you have some room in your freezer. Ideally, you should be able to fit a small baking sheet or tray of desserts to set in the freezer. Line a small tray or baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone sheet. Lay out 6 cookie cutters onto the parchment paper/silicone.

Drain the orange segments on a kitchen towel. Have the marmalade, whipped cream and baked circles of dough ready to use.

Arrange the orange segments at the bottom of each cookie cutter. Make sure the segments all touch either and that there are no gaps. Make sure they fit snuggly and look pretty as they will end up being the top of the dessert. Arrange them as you would sliced apples when making an apple tart. 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.

Using a butter knife or small spoon, spread a small even layer of orange marmalade on each circle of dough. Carefully place a circle of dough over each ring (the side of dough covered in marmalade should be the side touching the whipping cream). Gently press on the circle of dough to make sure the dessert is compact.

Place the desserts to set in the freezer to set for 10 minutes. 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.