Mini Blood Orange Curd Tarts

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For those of us who live in the U.K., it’s Mother’s Day on the 11^th March. If you’re treating your Mum to a home cooked meal then why not serve these Mini Blood Orange Curd Tarts. The smooth tangy curd contrasting with the crisp pastry shell is gorgeous and will be right up your Mum’s street.

I love blood oranges, finding them more interesting than regular oranges, with a slightly berry like flavour. However, if you are making this outside blood orange season then regular oranges work just as well or you could use lemons, just increase the sugar quantity by about 50%.

The recipe uses both the juice and zest of the oranges. To get the most flavour from the zest you need it to be very fine. I find that a fine microplane zester (*affiliate link) works brilliantly well for this. I first tried one a few years ago and I love it – it’s incredibly easy to use and gives lovely fine zest.

My recipe uses less butter than most curd recipes but I find that this ensures the curd has a clean fresh flavour. If you wish, you can even leave it out all together for a lighter curd that is still absolutely gorgeous.

This recipe makes more curd than you will need to fill the tart cases, but you will have no problem at all getting rid of the remaining curd. It’s gorgeous spread on bread, toast or crumpets or drizzled over ice cream, that is if you haven’t eaten it all straight from the jar with a teaspoon.

Mini Blood Orange Curd Tarts

Course: Baking, Dessert

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Servings: 6 people (with left over curd)

Author: Anna

Mini blood orange tarts that look beautiful, taste amazing and make the perfect Mother’s Day dessert.

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Ingredients

For the blood orange curd

• 4 blood oranges zest and juice (300ml juice)
• 100 g ½ cup caster sugar
• 2 whole eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 25 g ¼ stick butter, diced

For the tarts

• 6 all butter sweet pastry tart cases*

For the candied blood orange slices

• 1 blood orange cut into 6 thin slices
• 200 g granulated sugar

Instructions

For the blood orange curd.

1. Put the sugar and the zest and juice of the oranges into a heatproof bowl. Place over a pan of gently simmering water and heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved.
2. Strain** to remove the zest and rinse out the bowl. Return the syrup to the bowl and allow to cool for a couple of minutes.
3. Beat together the whole eggs and extra yolks thoroughly. Add the eggs to the sugar syrup and whisk in thoroughly. Place back over the pan of simmering water and heat, stirring occasionally, until the mixture has thickened and covers the back of the wooden spoon, this will take about 10 minutes.
4. Add the butter to the curd, stir until melted then sieve to ensure the curd is really smooth.

For the candied blood orange slices

1. Place the sugar and 180ml water into a large frying pan. Heat, stirring occasionally until the sugar has dissolved.
2. Place the orange slices into the syrup taking care that they do not overlap. Simmer for 15-30 minutes, turning occasionally, until the pith is translucent.
3. Cool on baking parchment. Store in an air tight container, between sheets of baking parchment until ready to use.

For the tarts

1. Pour the curd into the pastry cases ensuring that you fill them to just below the top. Leave to cool then refrigerate until ready to eat. Decorate with a candied orange slice just before serving.
2. Pour any remaining curd into a jam jar and refrigerate. Use within a few days.

Recipe Notes

*I use Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference, or make your own using your favourite recipe.

**Strain through a piece of cheese cloth, muslin or even a thin tea towel placed into a sieve to make sure you remove all the zest. Give it a squeeze, taking care not to burn yourself, to ensure you remove every bit of the syrup.

* I will receive a small percentage of the sale if you purchase this product through the Amazon link above.  The price of the product is the same as if you went through the Amazon website directly.

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