We combined this month's challenge with an Oscars party at Erica's house. Both of us enjoy critiquing red carpet fashion, although we spend most of our time in jeans and t-shirts. Wasn't Sandra Bullock's dress amazing? And, we love her, but didn't Meryl Streep kind of look like she was wearing a bathrobe?
Anyway, Erica prepared the caramel and orange segments the night before. The process was kind of tedious, though the oranges looked pretty.
Despite the multiple blanching steps required, the marmalade was much less trying to make. It smelled divine, and turned out perfectly.
The pate sablee was one of the easier doughs we've dealt with as Daring Bakers. The only problem we had was consuming too much of it raw. However, this is always a problem...
We were a little nervous with our choice of molds. We used silicone cupcake liners, since that was the best thing we could come up with. They looked super-cute going into the freezer, all multi-colored with their little cookie tops.
It turned out we had nothing to worry about! The Tians were a little lumpy and sticky, but ultimately they looked just like they were supposed to. We especially enjoyed getting a little creative with our caramel sauce designs. This degree of attractiveness is a fairly rare achievement for us, so we were both very excited! Our baking usually tastes great, but it doesn't always look too nice. In fact, the next day when we un-molded a few that had more time in the freezer, they looked 100% perfect.
So we declare these Orange Tians a winner! Even Sara, who despises cooked fruit to an extreme degree, had a taste and declared them mildly palatable... or at least she liked the cookie part. And they were a big hit among our usual group of friend-tasters.
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.
