Finally - the blood orange tart post!
I present to you the blood orange tart and my tart case fiasco!
Forgive the long time it’s taken to make this post, but after making it and having an absolute drama with the pastry, I haven’t been too eager to report back to the world. Well, I was using an Epicurious recipe, what’s the problem, you ask? The recipe only cooked the tart case and not the curd. Riiiiiiiight…
*eyes the curd*
*wiggles the curd*
*contemplates holding it upside down above her head, and hastily reconsiders as it begins to ooze out of its container*
Okay, so my curd wasn’t firm enough to act as a filling for any kind of pastry case without a bit of baking to draw some of its moisture out and make it firmer. I’m guessing that because I used a different curd recipe from the one that Epicurious had, this obviously wasn’t going to work, so I pondered what I should do. First, I started browsing blogs for a tart case recipe as I don’t like any of the ones from my own cookbooks that I’ve tried so far.
At this point, I’ve got to break away from my story and launch into a complaint about measurements and conversions. Okay, there are online converters and my scale does a pretty spiffy job of converting weights without me having to worry about, but there are some things which throw me into a lather.
What the CRUD is a stick of butter meant to mean?! Who measures things in STICKS? I can live with your pounds and ounces and pints and whatever not, but STICKS???
Don’t look at that bloody uncooked tart case. Every time I think of it I break into involuntary spasms of anger. *spasm spasm spasm*
Right. Now that I’ve got that out of my system, let me proceed with the story.
Having absolutely no idea how much a stick of butter weighs in the US, I decided to go with the normal weight of butter in Australia, which is 250g. And then I looked at how much butter that really was, and cut it down to 200g. I know, only 50g less - but hey, if it means I’m 50g further from severe artery clogging, that can only be a good thing, right?
Anyway, I decided that I’d parbake the pastry, so I weighted it with rice (line the case loosely with baking paper, then pack with rice) and cooked it at 180 degrees C in a fan-forced oven for 15 minutes. I gave the pastry a check at this stage, and the edges were beginning to take on a golden colour, and the bottom and sides of the pastry had taken on a firmer feel and were looking nicely puffed. “Good call, Ellie!” I told myself whilst patting myself on the back, then I spooned in the filling, smoothed it down with the back of my spoon and tucked it back in the oven for another 15 minutes. At this stage, the curd was bubbling and the surface had slightly browned, so I figured it should be done, right?
WRONG.
The curd was indeed spectacularly done - it retained it’s silky smoothness and flavour beautifully, but egads - the pastry hadn’t cooked properly! After chilling it in the oven for an hour, removing it and slicing into it, it looked as though the moisture from the curd had soaked into the not nearly cooked enough pastry and returned it to it’s uncooked state. Not entirely, as the stuff is as firm as firm can be, but the bottom of the tart is most definetely solid and uncooked and does not have the flaky beautifulness that the tops and sides of the pastry do.
Since those of you in the Northern Hemisphere are now coming into your blood orange season, I might pass this ball to you and sadly enjoy the last spoonfuls of my curd on some nice thick pieces of sourdough toast.
At least the baked curd looks good, right?
And the lessons from this experience?
1. Find a good tart case recipe that does not ask for STICKS OF BUTTER
2. Find out how much a stick of butter actually is (and not in cups for chrissake! Whaddaya crazy people do, melt down the butter, pour it into a cup and set it again? Yeesh!)
3. Have something extremely decadant and wrong on hand to console myself when trying a new recipe in case it goes wrong and I need consolation of the sugary kind.
Technorati Tags: blood orange curd, curd, tart
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Comments
Hey Ellie! A stick is 114 grams. Hope it works better next time. I had issues like this one when I first moved to the US. Nevertheless, when you are alone it is ok to slurp your tart!
Hi Ellie,
Just remember it’s through disasters like this that we really learn how to cook. Now you’ll know exactly how to make a tart shell for the rest of your life! God knows I’ve had enough cooking disasters in my life, and that’s really how I learned how to cook properly.
Kat - I’ve bookmarked that site for future reference! Dangnamit - I thought that all conversion sites were one and the same but the one I googled didn’t have the conversion for a darn stick!
Helen - Woo! Thanks for that hon, it’s going to come in very handy for future attempts at US recipes (I’m still grumpy about the stick reference, but I’ll live ;)) - I can imagine how frustrated you would’ve been getting accustomed to these new conversions upon your move!
LL - hehehe, I’m with you on that one 
Whilst this was in part a disaster (the pastry part - hah!), I’ve definetely learnt a few more things about the tart-making process, and will bear them in mind for the future! What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger, right? 
Before I became a blogger, this kind of thing would never have come up. I know I’ve read that a stick of butter was different in the US from everybody else but never had a problem. That is an excellent site.
Enjoyed Helen’s suggestion to slurp your tart when alone. But, then I’d have been happy to slurp it in your company.
I love working with blood oranges, they have a unique sweetness like no other. this looks terrific Ellie!
Barbara - I’ve tried the curd on a couple of different kinds of bread (wholemeal, multigrain, crusty white roll) and a thick slab of sourdough has paired with the curd well - possibly because the tang of the sourdough helps offset the sweetness of this curd 
Tanna - The site Kat recommended is brilliant and I’ve got it bookmarked for future reference And I’d be more than happy to have you sit down and slurp up some tart with me. We can feed the uncooked pastry to the dog (which, in fact, is what I have been doing! Hehe!)
Jenjen - They really are something special, citrussy and sweet, and the muted berry flavours I found in mine were amazing as well! Glad you liked this
Oh, so sorry about the sticks! I can imagine the utter confusion if you don’t get pounds of butter at the grocery store which are divided into 1/4 lb (112.5 grams) sticks. Can you believe that while living in Italy, I routinely eyeball my butter into what I guess are “sticks” in order to keep using my U.S. cookbooks!? Such craziness. The weight measurement system is so much more accurate anyway.
Ohhh my.. I’m so sorry but I’ve got tears in my eyes.. am laughing out loud! “What the CRUD is a stick of butter?” teeeeee!
Okay.. all joking aside, that curd looks dreamy, to say the very least. I am truly hoping that you try the tart again (now that you know how much a stick of butter weighs) even if you don’t go the blood orange route, then another fruity flavor
This post almost makes me want to have another one of my famous disasters in the kitchen so I can post about it.
That sucks! What’s good about sticks though is that they are in wax paper that is printed with tablespoon measurements, so you can just slice off as many as you need!
Disaster aside, it looks pretty yummy.
I had the same problem once when I was making a lemon tart. My tart case was done to the specification but my lemon curd wouldn’t “cook”. I ended up baking it for over an hour and it was still a bit under done. Later on I figured out why it was taking forever. The oven turned off in the midst of cooking. (it was a gas oven >
hey ellie,
I find jamie oliver’s sweet pastry the best but the other day helen from grab your fork posted lorraine godsmark’s recipe…she was the rockpool pastry chef for ages and makes the best tarts ever…am planning on giving it a go soon…
your blood orange curd looks gorgeous
Susan - Hehehe, I guess you could call our slabs ’sticks’ as well, we get our blocks of butter in 250g amounts, which is 1/4 of 1kg As for eyeballing your butter, I’m sure I’d do the same if ever faced with the measurements and sizes of a different country! Hope the butter didn’t eyeball back 
Lis - Yanno, I *do* have some spare time this weekend, I might hunt down some organic lemons and give a lemon curd tart a try With a different pastry recipe, that is
Rachel - Our butter comes in marked wax paper as well, but in 50g increments instead of tbsp
IlingC - Thanks hon Oh man, that’s why I’m so glad I have an electric oven now - I had a similar experience with a sponge cake in a gas oven. Needless to say, it didn’t turn out very spongy 
Jules - Oo, thanks for the heads up If I do get round to making a lemon curd tart, I’ll give the recipe on Helen’s blog a go!
What a fantastic post! So humourous and well written and I agree, at times recipe directions and measurements can be confounding.
I think a lot of recipes are written with a target audience in mind so they don’t concern themselves with the fact that “a stick of butter” may not mean anything to you.
(By the way, a stick of butter is 8 tbsp. or 1/2 cup of butter.)
Oh, I’m so sorry!
I remember the first curd pie I made…the story was very similar to yours. Don’t worry…they *do* get better.
j
Hi Ellie, I think the tart still looks pretty good. And thanks for pointing out the stick differences. I had no idea.
For my own sanity, I memorized it long ago “1 stick=1/4 pound=4 ounces=8 tbsp=1/2 cup=113 grams=113ml”. Sometimes I wish the US would convert to metric.
Ivonne - glad you enjoyed it Enough time has passed now that I can look back at this and laugh, and I’m always glad to give others a bit of a giggle!
Jasmine - ahh, it’s all good hon! I’m not one to let one failure keep me down, so I’ll give these another go - wish me luck!
Mary - thanks Hah - I know what you mean, it’d make using US cookbooks/recipes SO much easier!
oh my gosh! use http://www.onlineconversion.com, they calculate sticks of butter! will be waiting to see you take revenge and do this tart again