Daring Bakers Challenge: Grapefruit Tian

My first Daring Bakers Challenge!

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.

This was the first time I joined the Daring Bakers Challenge, where all daring bakers made a wonderful Tian of citrus fruits. Like many others I had never heard of an Orange Tian before. I still don't know how to translate it into Dutch, but i do know that I really like tian :)
The challenge itself was quite challenging, we had to make the tart dough, the whipped cream, the caramel sauce, citrus segments and marmalade ourselves!

Since I don't like oranges that much i decided to use grapefruits for my dessert. On the 'Noordermarkt' in Amsterdam I bought a big bag full of nice and juicy grapefruits. Once home I was ready to start my first challenge !

I was really happy with the help of my boyfriend. It took us almost the whole Saturday afternoon to prepare all the separate parts for the tian. I started to make the grapefruit segments. I never did this before, but after some grapefruits my skills became better and better. During segmenting the grapefruits my boyfriend started to blanch the grapefruit slices. The recipe told us to blanch the slices three times for oranges. After blanching the grapefruit slices 3 times they where almost as bitter as in the beginning. We had to blanch the grapefruit slices for about 8 times! The marmalade became perfect ! Good texture and taste :)

The caramel making was the most difficult and dangerous part of this challenge. It took me three times to make perfect caramel, and i love it!! I can almost drink it ;) But you have to be really careful when adding the citrus juice to the hot and melted sugar ! Wear protective clothes and kitchen gloves and most important, don't come to close with your face to the pan !

I replaced the double cream by a mixture of normal cream and mascarpone. I mixed them together in the prortion 1:2. I really liked the idea of flavoring the cream with some marmalade!

Most favoruite was the pate slabee, what a great dough, lovely ! I am really going to use this a lot when al fresh summer fruit is available :)

I really liked this recipe for the citrus tian, nice to prepare and very good taste! Great recipe for a challenge! By myself I would never have chosen this recipe and that is a good sign, I do really like to make new things and broaden my (culinary) horizon !

Different parts of the Grapefruit Tian:

- Pate sablee

- Grapefruit marmalade

- Flavored cream

- Grapefruit segments

- Caramel


Pate sablee > ingredients:
- 2 egg yolks at room temperature (medium- sized)
- 80 grams granulated sugar (2.8 oz)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 100 gram unsalted butter (3.5 oz) ice cold and cubed
- 1/3 teaspoon salt
- 200 gram all-purpose flour (7 oz)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder

Pate sablee > 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 ice cold water and process again to form a homogeneous ball of dough.
4. Form into a disc, cover with plastic wrap and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Preheat your oven to 350 degree Celsius.
5. Roll out the dough onto a lightly floured surface until you obtain a ¼ inch thick circle.
Using your cookie cutter, cut out circles of dough and place on a parchment (or silicone) lined baking sheet.
6. Bake for 20 minutes or until the circles of dough are just golden.











Grapefruit marmalade > Ingredients:
- 100 ml freshly pressed grapefruit juice (3.5 oz)
- 1 large grapefruit used to make orange slices
- cold water to cook the orange slices
- pectin 5 grams / agar agar
- granulated sugar: same weight as the weight of orange slices once they are cooked

Grapefruit marmalade > Directions:
1. Finely slice the grapefruit. Place the grapefruit slices in a medium-sized pot filled with cold water.
2. Simmer for about 10 minutes, discard the water, re-fill with cold water and blanch the grapefruits for another 10 minutes. Blanch the orange slices 7-8 times. This process removes the bitterness from the grapefruit peel, so it is essential to use a new batch of cold water every time when you blanch the slices.
3. Once blanched 7-8 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).
4. Weigh the slices and use the same amount of granulated 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).
5. Transfer to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge for at least one night.

Grapefruit segments > Ingredients:
- 8 grapefruits.

Grapefruit segments > Directions
1. Cut the oranges into segments over a shallow bowl and make sure to keep the juice.
2. Add the segments to the bowl with the juice and once the caramel is added put for one night in the fridge.

YouTube link on how to segment an orange

Caramel > Ingredients:
- 200 grams granulated sugar (7 oz)
- 400 ml grapefruit juice 1.5 cups (14 oz)

Caramel > Directions:
1. Place the sugar in a pan on medium heat and begin heating it.
2. Once the sugar starts to bubble and foam, slowly add the orange juice.
3. As soon as the mixture starts boiling, remove from the heat and pour half of the mixture over the orange segments.
4. Reserve the other half of the caramel mixture in a small bowl - you will use this later to spoon over the finished dessert.

Be very careful when making the caramel — if you have never made caramel before, I would suggest making this step while you don’t have to worry about anything else. Bubbling sugar is extremely, extremely hot, so make sure you have a bowl of ice cold water in the kitchen in case anyone gets burnt!

Whipped Cream > Ingredients:
- 200 gram heavy whipping cream (7 oz)
- 3 tablespoons of hot water
- 1 tsp Gelatine
- 1 tablespoon of confectioner's sugar
- 1 tablespoon grapefruit marmalade (see recipe above)

Whipped Cream > Directions
1. In a small bowl, add the gelatine and hot water, stirring well until the gelatine dissolves. Let the gelatine cool to room temperature while you make the whipped cream.
2. Combine the cream in a chilled mixing bowl. Whip the cream using a hand mixer on low speed until the cream starts to thicken for about one minute. Add the confectioner sugar.
3. 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.
4. 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.

*** 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.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Using a butter knife or small spoon, spread a small even layer of orange marmalade on each circle of dough.
4. 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.
5. Place the desserts to set in the freezer to set for 10 minutes.
6. 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).
7. 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.
8. Gently remove the cookie cutter, add a spoonful of caramel sauce and serve immediately.










THANKS FOR THIS WONDERFUL CHALLENGE !! I LIKED IT :)