Blood Orange Tart with Rosemary Butter Crust

There's a lot of blood orange recipes going around right now, and no wonder. This fruit not only looks amazing but tastes so unique compared to any other orange. It's not really too tart but not too sweet either and the color of the juice is intense. I was inspired to make this tart after seeing White on Rice Couple's blood orange bars, so I figured with it being a citrus I could just follow the recipe for a regular citrus tart, switching the lemon or lime juice for the blood orange juice plus a couple other changes. I used David Lebovitz's lime tart recipe as a starting point. I was hoping to get a deeper red hue to the curd, but looking around at other blood orange tart recipes, this paler color seems to be normal. It reminds me of how traditional key lime pie is - super pale, almost yellow but sometimes you'll see one that's green....weird and fake.

I had been searching for blood oranges for a while but had the hardest time finding any, even though they should be in season from December through March. I'm definitely going to try and grow my own tree for the future though. Making the filling is pretty easy, just keep stirring the curd or you might end up with scrambled eggs. It will thicken even though it seems like it won't - just have patience (and a strong-ass arm). It should take about 10 minutes of constant stirring. I added fresh rosemary to the crust which is the same basic crust I used for these pomegranate cheese bars, and it totally compliments the orange filling. Using rosemary in desserts is always on my mind - it's flowery, mellow flavor always creates a surprise for whoever's tasting the dish. If you need a simple crust with the best buttery shortbread flavor, then this should be it!

Another great thing was, when my kids saw me cut the oranges open to juice, they went crazy! They like fruit especially berries but they were all over the leftover oranges and then had me cutting up even more. I think it was the color because whenever they see me slice up regular old oranges, I never hear a peep from them. Minutes later they were both laughing at each others red juice faces and trying to figure out who could eat an orange wedge the fastest!

Recipe for Blood Orange Tart with Rosemary Butter Crust:: filling adapted from David Lebovitz

Prep Time- 30 minutes    Bake Time- 30 minutes    Serves- 8

For the crust-

1 cup unsalted butter cut into chunks
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh finely chopped rosemary
2 cups all purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9 inch tart shell pan with a removable bottom.

In a stand mixer beat the butter until soft. Add the brown sugar and mix on high until it becomes light, about three minutes. Add the salt, rosemary and flour, mix on low scraping down the sides of the bowl at least once. As soon as the dough comes together, stop the machine.

Place the dough into the tart shell and push the dough gently out towards the sides and up. Once the tart is evenly spread out, trim the edges and bake for 20 minutes rotating after 10 minutes.


For the filling-

8 Tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup fresh squeezed blood orange juice
1/2 cup sugar
Zest of two blood oranges
Pinch of salt
3 large egg yolks
3 large eggs

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Place the butter, orange juice, sugar and zest into a small saucepan and melt over a low heat.

In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs and yolks together. When the butter has melted and the mixture is well combined, add about 1/4 cup to the eggs mixing as you do this.

Add the eggs back into the orange juice mixture and stir constantly over a low heat until it starts to thickenm about 8-10 minutes. Do not stop stirring and don't let the curd boil.

Once thick, remove from the heat and pour into the pre-baked tart shell. Cut a slice of blood orange and place on top of the tart. Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes. The tart will still be jiggly in the middle but will firm up on cooling.

Let cool for at least an hour before serving. Keep in the refrigerator.