Two Types of Tarts

Phew. Busy week. Really no time to bake at all. But the weekend is here, which means I have a little more time. It's the end of my semester, so all the work is starting to pile up. But after that is spring break, so for a week there will be baking galore. This weekend I really wanted to make tarts and mousse. I decided to combine the two and make mousse tarts (genius, I know). I made one that was fruity and one chocolate. I haven't had a chance to show off my new camera, which is amazing, so I'm excited to put up this post. Have a good weekend!

Orange Curd Mousse Tart with Blackberry Sauce

Orange Curd
Adapted from The Secrets of Baking

2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons finely grated orange zest
3 eggs
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
4 tablespoons unsalted butter; chilled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes

Combine sugar and orange zest with a fork in a small bowl until very fragrant. Combine orange sugar, eggs, and egg yolks in a heatproof bowl and whisk together for 30 seconds. Place the bowl over simmering water and immediately begin whisking, continuing for 15 seconds, until the sugar is dissolved. Add the lemon and limes juices and cook, whisking continuously for about 5 minutes. Insert a thermometer. The curd is done when it has a consistency of sour cream and a temperature of 160 degrees F. Whisk in the butter cubes. Strain through a sieve and set in an ice bath to cool. Cover with plastic film to prevent a skin from forming.

Orange Curd Mousse

1 cup orange curd
1 cup heavy cream

Whip the heavy cream to firm peaks. Fold in orange curd. Refrigerate until use.

Sugar Dough

1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 stick of butter
1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups AP flour; sifted
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Cream the butter with the sugars. Beat in the vanilla, eggs, flour, baking powder, and salt. Chill the dough 3-4 hours before rolling.

Blackberry Sauce

2 cups blackberries
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Combine ingredients in a food processor. Don't over-process, since the sauce is best a little chunky.

Assembling the tarts
Roll out the sugar dough very thinly, about 1/8" - 1/16" thick on a floured work surface. Using a tart ring or a tallish cutter, cut out a circle of the dough. Place it on a parchment lined sheet pan. Cut a long strip the same height as your cutter and wrap around the inside as the wall of your tart. Lightly press into the bottom circle. Using foil, cover the entire surface area of your tart and fill with pie weights/rice. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Place in freezer for 30 minutes. Remove from freezer and bake for 9 minutes (depending on your oven). Remove faux-filling and bake additional 4 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool 5 minutes before removing from tart ring. Let the shells cool at least 2 hours before adding a filling.

Just before serving:
Spoon 1/2 tablespoon of blackberry sauce into bottom of tart shell, spread the back of a small spoon. Spoon mousse into tart and garnish with blackberries.


Chocolate Mousse Tarts with Almond Crumble

Sugar Dough
(same as above, along with assembly)

Chocolate Mousse

155 grams whipping cream
85 grams bittersweet chocolate

Melt chocolate in a double broiler. Whip cream to firm peaks, reserving 1/3 of cream to pour into melted chocolate to make a ganache-like mixture. Pour chocolate mixture into cream and whip on low speed for 15 seconds.

Almond Crumble

85 grams of unsalted butter; chilled, cubed
85 grams of flour
80 grams of sugar
135 grams of almonds

Combine flour and sugar in a food processor. Add butter cubes until cornmeal consistency. Add the almonds and pulse, but don't make it into almond flour, you want the chunks. Spread on a sheet pan and freeze for 20 minutes. Bake in a 425 degrees F oven for 5 minutes. Use tongs to move around the crumble and bake for additional 3-4 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool at least one hour before using.
Sprinkle on top of your tarts.