Saturday, March 27, 2010

Daring Bakers - Orange Tian


When I saw that this month's Daring Bakers challenge was an Orange Tian, I thought, "What the ...????" Perhaps I have been living in a cave, but I had never heard of an orange tian before, and when I read the ingredients, I wasn't initially enthused. However, after tasting the finished product, my mind was changed.

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.

Basically, orange tian is comprised of a biscuit base, spread with home-made marmalade (a la Jaffa Cakes - one of my favourite biscuits in the whole wide world), then topped with orange flavoured whipped cream and caramel-flavoured orange segments and drizzled with orange-caramel sauce. I would never have chosen to make this of my own accord, and while I won't promise to make it again, I have to say that it is good. The zing of the oranges against the fluffy whipped cream reminds me of orange sherbert, and with the caramel sauce on top, this is a devine combination.

On to the step by step photos so you get the picture. Here is my pate sable (biscuit) base:


You then segment oranges - a lot of oranges - for the top of the tian. Here is an orange being segmented:


Thanks for the link to the video on how to do this Jennifer - I would have been a little lost without it. My technique improved as I went along, but I also believe that some oranges were meant to be segmented, while others - well, not so much. I ended up segmenting 6 and a half oranges for this dessert.

The orange segments are coated with an orange-caramel syrup, then arranged in a pattern in the bottom of a ring mould (in my case, the rim of a spring form pan):



The oranges are then topped with whipped cream through which gelatine and marmalade have been folded:




The biscuit base is spread with home-made marmalade:




I didn't need to use pectin or jam setter to make this marmalade - the time tested ratio of 1:1 fruit:sugar worked just fine by itself.

You place the jam side of the biscuit base down on top of the cream in the mould, then you freeze the whole thing for around 20 minutes (as mine was a large one - smaller versions need only 10 minutes).

After the dessert has set, you turn it out onto a plate, orange-side up:



Ta da!

The piece de resistance is to reduce some of the orange caramel syrup made to coat the oranges down into a thick sauce and drizzle it over the tian before serving:




I was skeptical about the sauce too, but man it is good! The dessert is made even better by the sauce, so don't skip it.

To take a gander at hundreds of other orange and other flavoured tians, visit
the Daring Bakers blogroll. Thanks to Jennifer for introducing me to something new and exciting this month, which I otherwise would never have known about or made.

29 comments:

  1. Well done! I love your step by step, and you tempt me to dive into your screen. Yes, I had similar 'what the ...' thoughts as you, and had never heard of it either. Loved doing it eventually!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I hadn't thought of this as like a Jaffa cake, but you're right! Now I see why many were using chocolate... Glad you liked this in the end--I really enjoyed it.
    :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I too was sceptical.... but it didn't change much when I tasted it :( Glad you loved the dessert so much

    ReplyDelete
  4. It looks absolutely wonderful. I can tell that a lot of work has gone into it, so I hope you get a lot of fun eating it.
    Beautiful job.
    Hope you have an amazing weekend daaaaaahling.
    *kisses* HH

    ReplyDelete
  5. Beautiful job Cakelaw! I love the vivid colours and it looks delectable! :D

    ReplyDelete
  6. wow very nicely done! I used gelatine for my marmalade but it's nice to know that it can also be dont with just the oranges and sugar :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Good job on the challenge. And yes, I agree, the caramel sauce is divine!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Guess I've been living in the same cave! LOL
    Your Tian looks lovely. Great step-by-step pics.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Great step by step pictures! And I just love your plate with the butterflies,so pretty.

    ReplyDelete
  10. You're so brave, a big tian needs a lot of work, turned out beautiful too :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Nice job! I didn't think this would be my favorite dessert either, but I'm glad I made it as well. It's nice to branch out.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I too had never heard of this until the challenge came up.perfect segments.

    ReplyDelete
  13. This looks absolutely gorgeous, Gaye! Bravo!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Looks really yumm, i love it.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Ciao I totally agree with you ! It's wonderful !

    ReplyDelete
  16. Great job Gaye. The tian looks beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Well done. Definitely a lovely dessert made even better with the sauce. I thought the same about skipping it as well but glad I decided otherwise now.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Looks great! I have to admit I was initially skeptical about the challenge too, but changed my mind once I tasted it.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Great Job!! Your Tian looks fabulous as does each component on its own. I piked out of making my own marmalade but this was a really tasty dessert - especially the orange caramel sauce!!

    ReplyDelete
  20. I had the same feeling about the tian at first. But I did enjoy eating it! Yours looks fabulous, and your caramel sauce looks just perfect.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Love your step by step photos. Beautiful tian! The orange caramel sauce really did tie it together, didn't it?

    ReplyDelete
  22. thanks for visiting. and, I totally thought jaffa cake when I saw this recipe (even put nutella in between my meringues and the top.) and, great job to you.

    ReplyDelete
  23. I've never heard of an orange tian (or any kind of tian) before either. It does look good though!

    ReplyDelete
  24. Your tian looks absolutely delicious!
    I'm glad you enjoyed it!

    ReplyDelete
  25. I love how you created a large tian. Looks so good!

    ReplyDelete
  26. Beautiful family size tian..it looks as if it could be in a case of a high end patisserie. Well done!

    ReplyDelete
  27. it sounds like something I would enjoy with chocolate but as you say it was an unlikely winner I think I would need to taste it and give it the benefit of the doubt - the combination does sound intriguing

    ReplyDelete
  28. I saw this on another blog and thought it just looked so beautifully fresh and fantastic! She didn't make the sauce, tho, so it was fun to come here and see what the sauce looked like, etc. Beautiful job on this! Very impressive.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for dropping by!