Recipe: Orange-Pistachio Temptation Tart PLUS a Bonus Cookie :)
I’m going to cut straight-to-the-chase here: you will marry this tart. Or at least try to and hope that food marriage becomes legal sometime soon. You will spend hours, days, and even years longing for another taste of this rich, creamy, buttery dessert. If you have a significant other before you taste this tart…be careful. Jealousy will be tested. A war might start about who gets the last piece. All because YOU WILL WANT TO MARRY THIS TART!!! And leave everyone else behind in the dust (hey, I didn’t say the tart wasn’t evil…but it’s a delicious evil that’s too tempting to deny).
Now I don’t want to scare any of you here…I just need to warn you about how dang delicious this tart is. It will possibly change your life (and I don’t say that lightly…this isn’t an infomercial about the transformative powers of a singing toothbrush, after all; side note: where can I get a singing toothbrush? Asking for a friend…).
This recipe features a dense, creamy pistachio-orange filling that’s baked into a sweet, buttery crust studded with pistachio and vanilla bean. It’s then topped with a sensuous, zesty orange curd that’s spiked with some Grand Marnier (a little booze makes the dessert-world go around) and finished with an addictively crunchy pistachio-praline garnish.
I’d recommend serving this dessert when you really want to impress someone (although maybe not a romantic interest…they’ll probably leave you for the tart and we don’t want that); it’s stunning in both flavor and appearance. People might be asking to see your pastry school degree after this (just say it was in a French town they couldn’t possibly pronounce, to sound extra fancy.)
And, most importantly, this tart goes perfectly with the orange-pistachio macarons at Poeme (I love it when things work out like that!). Literally, this recipe is like the orange-pistachio macarons in tart form; so grab a macaron and make this tart so that you can have the best dessert party ever (preferably Mediterranean-themed!).
Oh, you thought I’d start the recipe now, didn’t you? Well, there’s one more thing you get with this amazing, delicious, luscious tart (I’m really starting to sound like a game show host and I’m not mad…should I be mad?): a BONUS cookie recipe!!! Yep, this recipe is a two-in-one deal. The only catch is that you may disband every relationship you ever had and run away to a remote island off the coast of Guam in this tart…but let’s not talk about that right now…because you get cookies out of this recipe, if you so choose! Just head on over here for that recipe and all the crumbly, cookie details (my favorite type of details).
Now back to the main event, the orange-pistachio temptation tart recipe:
Orange-Pistachio Temptation Tart
Ingredients
1 8-inch tart pan
Tart Crust
- 1 3/4 cups AP Flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 9 tbsp butter, chilled and cubed
- 1/2 cup ground, roasted pistachios Try to buy unsalted; shelled is good too, unless you’re up for the task of shelling a profound amount of pistachios
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 vanilla bean, scraped You can also use 1 tablespoon vanilla extract or 1 tsp vanilla paste, if you would like to subsitute!
- 1 egg, beaten
Pistachio-Orange Cream
- 5 tbsp butter, softened
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar
- zest of two oranges
- 1 cup ground, roasted pistachios You can roast and grind them yourself; just make sure to grind them extra-fine!
- 2 eggs
- 1/3 cup freshly-squeezed orange juice This will be about one orange
- 1 tbsp Grand Marnier, or other orange liqueur (optional and to taste)
Orange Curd Topping
- 1/2 cup white granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
- 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
- zest from one orange
- 1/3 cup freshly-squeezed orange juice This is about one orange
- 6 tbsp butter, softened
- 1 tbsp Grand Marnier, or other orange liqueur (optional and to taste)
Pistachio Praline Topping
- 1 cup roasted, unshelled pistachios
- 1 cup white granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup water
Instructions
To make the crust:
- Place flour, salt, ground pistachios, powdered sugar, and vanilla bean into a large bowl (or stand mixer). Whisk together.
- Add the cubed, chilled butter to the flour mixture. Using a pastry cutter, your hands, or a stand mixer (mixing on low), incorporate the butter into the flour until it reaches a sandy, breadcrumb texture that clumps together easily. This will be similar to dough-making process for the Zerbo kocke recipe on this blog.
- Make a well in the flour and add beaten egg, mixing with a fork until it comes together into a rough, soft dough (don’t overmix, especially if using a stand mixer! You’re dough will be tough and that would be bad…very, very bad…overmixing might be my greatest foe. That and pineapple on pizza.)
- Form dough into a disk (this will help for rolling it out later). Plastic wrap it and place it in the fridge to chill for 1-2 hours. You can also let it sit overnight, if you would like to make it ahead of time.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and lightly grease an 8-inch tart pan.
- Take dough out of fridge and place between two sheets of parchment. This will make it easier to roll the dough thinly (for those of you who made Zerbo kocke, it will be a similar technique). Roll the dough to about 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick (depending on how thiccccc you like your crust to be, I wouldn’t go more than a 1/4 inch though!), in the shape of a rough circle.
- The dough might crack a bit at the edges, but that’s okay! Take the top sheet of parchment off. NOTE: For this recipe, I purposely make a larger batch of dough as both a “safety guarantee” (less chance of ripping the dough in critical spots) as well as to use for cookies (bonus recipe link). You could also use the extra crust to make mini tarts; the possibilities are endless!
- Carefully place the tart crust into the pan, flipping the dough so that the bottom parchment is now on top. When it’s snugly in the pan, remove the top parchment slowly. Then rip the extra dough from the edges around the pan and put aside for other use (see above NOTE for more info!). Push the remaining dough into the pan; if it rips, just use the extra dough to fill in those spots (don’t worry, nobody will even notice any small mishaps when the tart gets filled; and at worst, just call it “rustic.” This ALWAYS works).
- Prick the bottom of the tart with a fork. This prevents air bubbles and promotes more even cooking.
- Now we’re going to use a technique called blind baking. This means we’re going to pre-bake the crust before the filling so that it cooks evenly and doesn’t overbrown or get soggy. There are several different ways to do this (it’s like a chocolate chip cookie recipe…every baker swears their way is the best!); I like to use the baking beads/uncooked rice method. This involves cutting a circle of parchment slightly larger than the pan (so that you can remove it easily later) and placing uncooked rice/beans or baking beads onto the parchment to weigh it down.
- Place the pan into the preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes.
- When ready, take the pan out of the oven and let cool slightly. Remove the baking beads (this is where the larger sheet of parchment helps) carefully. The crust shouldn’t look much different color-wise, just a little more set.
- Let the crust cool further while you make the filling.
To make the Pistachio-Orange Cream Filling:
- In the bowl of a stand-mixer (or a large bowl using a hand mixer) place the butter, powdered sugar, orange zest, and ground pistachios.
- Beat the ingredients on medium speed until smooth and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes.
- Add in the eggs, one by one. Then add the orange juice and (optional) Grand Marnier. Beat until combined (it’s okay if it’s slightly lumpy; that will go away during baking).
- Pour filling into tart, filling to 1/2 inch from the top (you may have a slight bit of extra filling).
- Bake the filled tart for 30 minutes at the same temperature (350 degrees Fahrenheit). When done, it will look “set” and not runny, in addition to acquire a light golden color on top. It might also look slightly domed, but this will flatten as it cools.
- Let the tart cool completely, removing it from the pan, before topping with the Orange Curd.
To Make the Orange Curd Topping:
- Place all ingredients apart from the butter and (optional) Grand Marnier into a medium saucepan. Cook under medium-low heat, stirring often, until it comes to a boil and thickens slightly (you don’t want it incredibly viscous; it will look like a looser pudding).
- Take the curd off the heat and stir in the butter until combined. Add Grand Marnier.
- Let cool slightly (about 5-10 minutes) before pouring over the cooled, baked tart. Pour until it completely fills the tart; if you have extra, try not to have any run over and place it to the side for other use (orange curd is delicious on bread or in other pastries).
- Let the tart chill in the fridge for at least two hours before topping with pistachio praline and serving. Again, you can make this all a day before and have it ready to serve with minimal preparation on the day it’s needed (I love recipes like that!).
To Make the Pistachio Praline:
- Put roasted pistachios on a baking sheet lined with parchment so that they are all touching but not overlapping. Set aside.
- Put sugar and water in a small saucepan and cook on medium-high heat until the sugar starts caramelizing. Watch it closely so it doesn’t burn! It will turn a light amber color; quickly remove from the heat and carefully pour over the pistachios. You can move the baking sheet around a bit to roll the pistachios into the caramel, but don’t touch it with your bare hands (hot caramel is painful…very, very painful…not that I would know, of course….ha….ha…..).
- Let cool until hardened (placing the baking sheet in the freezer helps); this will take 10-20 minutes.
- You should now have a hard, pistachio-caramel bark. Break it apart into smaller chunks and place in a food processor. For this recipe, we want to pulse it until it’s ground (the fineness depends on your preference; if you want more crunch, go for bigger granules.) NOTE: To make praline paste, a delicious dessert ingredient, just process this bark until it forms a paste; easy, huh?
To assemble:
- When the tart is ready to be served, take out of the fridge and top with the pistachio praline. Other garnishes that you might want to use are candied orange peels or mini-macarons (ask Poeme about ordering these!).
- Cut into 6-8 slices (or just eat it whole…I won’t tell…besides, it’s like pot, meet kettle, concerning that…) and serve; get ready to be everyone’s favorite person 🙂
Notes
So what are you waiting for, get to baking already 😀
Have a sweet, delicious day everyone!
