madcity girl

Roasted Clementine and Chocolate Tart with a Macadamia Nut Crust
From In the Sweet Kitchen: The Definitive Baker’s Companion, by Regan Daley

One of the recipes I used for last week’s iron chef dinner came from a new cookbook my brother gave me for Christmas. It’s called In the Sweet Kitchen: The Definitive Baker’s Companion. The book is cholkfull of helpful baking tips and countless recipes for sweet treats. I spent some time during the holidays leisurely leafing through the recipes. With the clementine iron chef dinner on the horizon, I was of course very excited to stumble upon a recipe for Roasted Clementine Tart.

This recipe was certainly the most time intensive of those I chose to make for the iron chef dinner, but it was one of my favorites. I loved the combination of chocolate and orange. The chocolate ganache was sinfully rich and creamy, and the macadamia nut crust only sealed the deal. This is a great recipe for the fleeting Clementine season. Enjoy!

Macadamia Nut Crust:
1 (10 1/2-or 11-inch) Rich Nut tart shell, pg. 657, made with macadamia nuts, pre-baked and cooled (let me know if you’d like the crust recipe. You can also search for it pretty easily online.)

Roasted Clementines:
10 medium-sized clementine oranges (also called mandarins), washed and dried, but not peeled
1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1 to 2 tbsp. Grand Marnier or other orange liqueur, optional
3 tbsp. plus 1/2 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed

Chocolate Ganache:
8 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup heavy cream (36%)

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. With a sharp knife slice the clementines crosswise into very thin rounds, discarding the stem and flower ends. Lay the slices overlapping in the bottom of a 9 x 13-inch glass baking dish. Pour the orange juice and Grand Marnier over the clementines and sprinkle them with 3 tbsp. brown sugar. Cover the dish with aluminum foil and roast in the center of the oven for 60 to 70 minutes, or until the peels are tender when pierced with the tip of a knife.

2. Increase the temperature to 375 degrees. Uncover the dish and sprinkle with clementines with the remaining 1/2 cup brown sugar. Return to the oven for another 30 minutes, or until the liquid has become syrupy and the oranges have begun to caramelize. Lightly cover the baking dish and allow the clementines to cool to a room temperature. (may be prepared up to 3 days in advance and stored, well covered, at room temperature.)

3. To make the ganache, place the chopped chocolate in a medium-sized bowl. Bring the cream just to the simmer over medium-high heat, watching closely to see that it does not boil. Immediately pour the hot cream over the chocolate and stir until thoroughly combined. Allow the ganache to cool until it has the consistency of a soft icing, then spread it evenly over the bottom of the tart shell.

4. Once the start shell has been lined with the ganache, lay the clementine slices over the chocolate in an overlapping circular pattern. Scrape the syrup from the bottom of the baking dish with a rubber spatula and spoon this liquid over the clementines. The finished tart may be assembled up to 1 day before serving and stored, lightly covered, at room temperature.