Saturday, March 27, 2010

seeing orange?

It's the end of the month, which means it's time for me to post about my Daring Bakers challenge for March - insert blog checking lines here:

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 dessert consists of all sorts of wonderful elements, all which were made from scratch. A cookie like crust, whipped cream, marmalade and lots of yummy oranges. The most challenging for me was making the orange marmalade from scratch. I have never made any sort of jam or jelly in my life, and really had no idea what to expect. I decided to make mine a blend of oranges and strawberries in hopes that the boys would eat leftovers on sandwiches and such.

Ready to be blanched for the marmalade

Strawberries and oranges about to go for a spin in the food processor

The marmalade turned out very nice, and I have been using the leftovers on toast - yum yum. I think I need a bit more practice though because mine was a bit runny, but still firm enough to work for the dessert.

The assembly of the dessert was also a challenge, not because it was hard, but because I managed to make a complete disaster of my kitchen!! Caramel sauce ALL over my fridge, spilled drinks while cleaning up said caramel sauce, orange juice, cream...it's wasn't pretty. But I managed to get it all put together and to my astonishment, even turned out with a pretty final product. Here is a picture of my kitchen floor with all sorts of food on it that had to be pulled out of the fridge, wiped down, and then put back in after I cleaned the caramel off everything...

The finished product was well worth the mess...or at least it looks like it is. I took it out of the freezer for photographing purposes only, and now it is back in there, wrapped up nice and tight, until Sunday when I will serve it for dessert. I can honestly say I have never had, or made a dessert like this one, so I am curious as to how it will taste, but from what I hear, it's not going to disappoint.

Finally a few pictures of my finished challenge:

Straight out of the freezer on the left and on the right a view of the cross-section after I cut a piece out.

Ta-da: finished and plated with the caramel sauce

10 comments:

chef_d said...

Wow, gorgeous looking tian!

Mary said...

It looks beautiful, and you got such a nice clean cut for the slice. Good to know if I make a family style one!

Amanda said...

That looks fantastic - how did you get it to cut so neatly? Love the photo of the kitchen aftermath.

shelley c. said...

I can't wait to hear how you like the dessert - I found it to be different, light and refreshing! :) Sorry about the caramel mishaps and associated clean-up required, but your tian came out absolutely beautifully!! Great jobo n the challenge.

Gala said...

Wow what a nice clean cut! Very pretty!

Karen | Citrus and Candy said...

Umm strawberry and oranges. Would you believe that I 'm actually craving fruits at this time of the night? Btw I love the cross-section photo. :)

blunoz said...

Oh my gosh that looks heavenly! Sorry for the mess in the fridge, but hope it was worth the effort.

Sam S. said...

Wow...NICE!

And so jealous you have Chobani. :( And that you get to hear from Kevin! LOL

Ago said...

Wow! orange and strawsberry tians! That looks fantastic!!!! I love your photos!
Kisses
Ago :-D

Unknown said...

Wow...your caramel looks great! I had the same "waffle" appearance on my oranges from the springform pan...easy decoration! ;-) I hope you liked the dessert as much as you dessert looked pretty!