Blood orange & hazelnut tart

delicatly spiced hazelnut crust with a juicy blood orange curd

Tips

How to make a curd

A curd is made with egg, sugar, butter, and fruit juice. The eggs and sugar are cooked together with the juice before being strained and incporporated with butter for a silky smooth final product.
It is important you start the curd in a cool pot and whisk all eggs and sugar together thoroughly. We don’t want scrambled eggs. Constantly stirring and scrapping the edges ensures the curd cooks thoroughly, and reduces the chance of lumps.
Be patient! One of the hardest things about baking is patience, the curd needs to reach 160 F (72 C) before it can be removed from the heat. If you do not have a food thermometer, dip a spoon in your curd, it should generously coat the back of the spoon.

crust baking

For this tart, you want to cook your crust most of the way through, this is more than parbake but slightly less than fully done. If you do not have pie weights, you can use dried beans.

decoration ideas

Sometimes tarts can look boring. For the blood orange tart, I like to deorate with candied blood orange slices, and honey cream fraiche.

candied blood orange
Boil orange slices for 2 -3 minutes. Strain. In large a skillet add 1 cup of sugar, and 1 cup of water. Stir and heat up over low heat until sugar melts. Add single layer of orange slices and let simmer turning occasionally for 40-65 minutes until orange rinds become translucent. Remove and let sit on parchment paper, or cooling rack to let cook before use.

Blood orange and hazelnut tart

Preparation Time: 45 minutes | Cook Time: 60 minutes | Serving size: 1 9in tart

Gather

hazelnut crust

• 1½ cups ground hazelnuts (see steps)
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 teaspoon cardamom 
• 2 teaspoons ginger 
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into cubes 
• 1 egg

blood orange curd

• 10 tablespoons of butter, diced 
• ¼ cup finely grated blood orange zest
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• ⅛ teaspoon fine sea salt
• 4 large eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 cup strained blood orange juice (about 5-6 blood oranges)
• ¼ cup strained lime (or orange) juice

Follow

hazelnut crust

1. Place a handful or two of hazelnuts into a food processor and grind until resembling sand. Measure out 1½ cup of hazelnuts. Return cup of hazelnuts to food processor. Add sugar, salt, cardamom and ginger. Grind for another few seconds until combined. Add flour, and pulse for a few seconds until combined. If your processor isn’t large enough, use a large bowl to whisk the flour and hazelnuts. 
2. Add butter to a food processor, and pulse until butter is the size of peas. You can also cut butter into flour with a pastry cutter. Whisk egg and add to dough. Combine until the dough starts to hold together. Turn dough over on flat surface. Work and shape into a ball. Cover ball in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour. 
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out the dough into a 12-inch round. For ease, roll between two sheets of wax paper sprayed with cooking spray, silicone mats or plastic wraps. Place pastry dough into tart pan, carefully pressing into the sides and against the wall. Roll rolling pin over tart pan to cut the edges. Refrigerate tart for 10 minutes.
4. Place prepared tart pan on baking sheet. Place parchment paper over tart and pour baking weights (or dry beans) into tart. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove parchment paper and bake for additional 8 minutes. Once complete, remove from oven and reduce heat to 325 degrees. Note: You can begin making blood orange curd when you remove the pie weights.

blood orange curd

1. Place the butter in a large heatproof bowl. Place a mesh strainer over the bowl and set aside.
2. In a medium saucepan, combine blood orange zest, sugar, salt, eggs and egg yolks. Gradually whisk in the blood orange juice and lime juice until combined.
3. Heat over medium-low heat and cook, stirring constantly with a silicone spatula, until the mixture thickens and reaches 160-165 degrees, 8-10 minutes. As you stir, be sure to scrape the entire bottom and corners of the pan. Lower the heat to very low as it gets closer to being done. If the mixture starts to curdle or bubble, immediately remove it from the heat and continue to the next step.
4. Immediately pour the curd through the strainer and into the bowl of butter. Be sure to scrap the bottom of the fine mesh strainer. Whisk to incorporate the butter, and remove any lumps.
5. Be sure your oven temperature is reduced to 325 degrees. Pour curd into crust, and bake for 18-25 minutes. Tart is complete when the sides have raised slightly and the center is wobbly like set jello. Tart is overcooked when the center raises and begins to crack. Go by look while using your time, as a checkpoint.
6. Remove from oven and let cool to room temperature, then cover with plastic wrap before placing in fridge to fully cool.