A TART WITH A HEART TO PLEASE ALL
A zesty treat sure to delight citrus lovers
There are chocolate people, and there are vanilla people. I am a lemon person. Show me a dessert menu, and I’ll choose whatever is flavored with puckery lemon or any of her citrus sisters — lime, tangerine, kumquat, yuzu. Even as a kid, I went for lemon sorbet over the mint chocolate-chip ice cream. The combination of sugar cut with enough acidic citrus juices to make my jaw ache is my confection perfection — mostly pleasure, pricked with pain.
Of all the lemony desserts one could make, I’ve always leaned hard on the classic, lemon curd tart. But there are times when it pays to branch out. This elegant tart, with tangerine, ginger and a little chocolate, is one of them.
I got the idea at my friend Shawn’s dinner party this past winter. Periodically throughout the meal of fried veal cutlets with capers and potato gratin, I’d turn to gaze at the lemon tart on the counter, glistening daisy bright.
When she sliced though it, there was a surprise: a thin layer of melted chocolate brushed over the crust. The recipe, her take on one by Suzanne Goin at Lucques in Los Angeles, ensures crisp pastry by creating a chocolate barrier between liquid curd and the pre-baked tart shell. The filling was softly gelled, sour and darkly complex from the bittersweet coating, and the crust crumbly and rich.
Even before I’d polished off my wedge, I was already adapting the recipe in my head. What would happen if I added tangerine to the lemon, since orange flavors work so well with chocolate?
A few weeks later, I tried it, and while I adored the way the tangerine and the chocolate got along, the tart was missing something — that intense lemony smack. The tangerine juice had dulled its bite.
Adding more lemon to the curd would have meant using less tangerine juice or compromising the texture. Any extra punch would have to come via the crust.
I briefly considered black pepper before settling on crystallised ginger, which has a sharpness equal to lemon, and a pleasingly chewy texture. Better yet, it turned the crust into a giant shortbread cookie. As a final touch, I spooned some tangy creme fraiche on to the top and sprinkled that with crystallised ginger, too.
The tart had brightness, depth and a hint of spice — a treat for lemon people and beyond.
TANGERINE, GINGER AND CHOCOLATE TART INGREDIENTS
Servings: 8 Total time: 1 ½ hours, plus chilling
For the tart dough:
1 ¾ cups plus 2 tbsp/235g all-purpose flour
1/3 cup/40g powdered sugar
2 tbsp/30g chopped crystallized ginger Pinch of kosher salt
½ cup/115g unsalted butter (1 stick), cold and cubed
1 large egg, lightly beaten
For the filling:
6 large egg yolks
3 large eggs
¾ cup fresh tangerine juice (from 3 to 4 large tangerines)
¼ cup fresh lemon juice (from about 2 lemons)
3 tbsp finely grated tangerine zest
1 ½ tsp finely grated lemon zest
½ cup plus 2 tbsp/125g granulated sugar
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
1/8 tsp kosher salt
¾ cup/170g unsalted butter (1 ½ sticks), cubed
½ tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup/45g bittersweet chocolate, chopped, or use chips or baking discs (1 ½ ounces)
½ cup crème fraîche or sour cream
2 tbsp/30g chopped crystallised ginger Chocolate curls, for serving (optional)
METHOD
1. Place the flour, sugar, crystallized ginger and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse to combine.
2. Add butter and pulse until a coarse meal forms. Add egg and pulse just until a crumbly dough comes together. Press dough into a disk, wrap in plastic, and chill for at least 1 hour or overnight (or up to 5 days).
3. Prepare the curd: In a large, heatproof bowl, whisk together yolks and whole eggs. In a medium pot over medium heat, combine tangerine juice, lemon juice, 1 ½ tbsp tangerine zest, ¾ tsp lemon zest, sugar, ginger, salt and butter. Once mixture is simmering, slowly pour into eggs, whisking constantly, then return mixture to pot. Cook, stirring constantly, over mediumlow heat, until curd thickens enough to coat a spoon, 4 to 7 minutes. Strain into a medium bowl and stir in remaining tangerine and lemon zest and vanilla. If not using immediately, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use, up to 5 days.
4. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to 1.5cm thickness (about 30cm round). Place dough into a 9-inch tart pan, trimming the dough edges. Poke bottom of dough all over with a fork; chill for at least 30 minutes and up to 24 hours.
5. Heat the oven to 160 degrees. Line the tart crust with foil and fill with baking weights. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove foil and weights and continue to bake until shell is light golden, another 15 to 20 minutes.
6. Remove crust from oven and immediately sprinkle chopped chocolate evenly over the bottom. Let it sit for 1 minute to melt chocolate, then spread over the surface using an offset spatula. Let the chocolate cool for 5 minutes.
7. Scrape curd into crust. Bake until the edges are set but the center is still slightly jiggly when shaken, 25 to 35 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
8. In a small bowl, whisk together crème fraîche and crystallized ginger. To serve, top the cooled tart with crème fraîche and shave chocolate curls all over the top if you like.