I love it when I come across recipes so inspiring that I cannot wait to rush to my kitchen and start baking. Lately, I’ve been enjoying a string of such recipes so the excitement keeps me invigorated. One of food52’s latest challenge is the search for late winter pies and tarts. In addition to their usual prizes and inclusion in the cookbook, the winner of this challenge also gets featured on Martha Stewart to cross promote her latest cookbook Martha Stewart’s New Pies & Tarts. Upon reading the winning recipe Tangerine & Almond Shortbread Tart by Lori Goldsby, I made a beeline to the supermarket to pick up a couple of tangerines that very same day.
This tart is simple yet unusual. A shortbread crust filled with caramel and toasted almond slices evoke memories of florentine but it is the use of tangerine that intrigues the tastebuds. You can obviously detect the refreshing taste of citrus in both the crust and filling yet the taste is elusive to pinpoint because tangerine rarely gets enough attention. When I was zesting and juicing the fruit, I was overcome by the bright sunny taste and vibrancy of tangerine. The caramel filling made with honey, brown & white sugar, tangerine juice, and cream developed a deep flavour to temper the sweetness. I can imagine how awesome it would be if I top the tart with a thin glaze of tangerine dark chocolate ganache. If only I had the time to complete my vision!
The recipe makes a 10-inch tart, a little bigger than most tart recipes. I do not own a tart pan in this size but I picked up some good tips from other bloggers at yesterday’s BAKED Sunday Mornings. Using the ring of my 10-inch springform pan over a baking sheet lined with Silpat, it made a good-enough tart ring. It took a bit of finesse to shape the press-in tart dough to even height but the result is a streamlined appearance that looks close enough like the work of a proper tart ring. The moral of the story is that a little ingenuity goes a long way but what I really want instead is to get a set of tart rings in successive sizes because it’s so much nicer to work with than a fluted tart pan!
Uniqueness is what drew me to this recipe initially. However, it just occurred to me last night that it is a riff on a recipe on my to-bake list. In BAKED New Frontiers In Baking, there is Honeycomb Bars which has a filling of almonds, dried cherries, and candied orange peel bind together in a remarkably similar honey caramel. Granted, the headnote for that recipe did say the honeycomb bar is not exactly common so it’s no coincidence I’m attracted to both recipes. The other day I bought two bags of dried Montmorency cherries at Costco for a great price. I think that’s a perfectly good reason for me to give honeycomb bar a go at last. I have a feeling I’ll enjoy it just as much as I love the taste of this Almond & Tangerine Shortbread Tart.
