Candied winter citrus tart with vanilla custard, dark chocolate, & flaked salt in a whole wheat almond shortbread crust
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This lovely late winter tart is a tarte composee, or composed tart. A buttery shortbread crust made with almond and whole wheat pastry flours and turbinado sugar for a little crunch is filled with a very thin layer of dark chocolate ganache, napped with vanilla custard, decorated with a kaleidoscope of candied winter fruits, and flecked with a pinch of flaked salt. Each element of the tart is quite simple and unfussy, and most take just a few minutes to make. I had so much fun spinning around the kitchen today developing each component. You could use any citrus you particularly like in any combination; I chose slices of grapefruit, cara cara and blood oranges, tangerines, meyer lemons, and kumquats. The idea popped into my head as soon as I saw that Food52 was hosting a tart contest this week. I’ve had the image of thin moons of winter citrus scattered with flaked salt bumping around in my brain for a few days, and was planning to make a salad of such this week. Since I just made a simple vanilla custard, I imagined they would be happy partners in a tart, so I made another batch, this one stabilized with a little cornstarch. And a thin layer of dark chocolate with the citrus, well, that sounded pretty scrummy, too. Making candied citrus is quite simple. Thin slices of whole fruit go into a bath of sugar syrup, just water and sugar and a vanilla pod brought to the boil, and emerge, syrupy and glowing, like so many vibrant moons. The tart is a pretty burst of color in the midst of an otherwise grey winter day, and a delicious one to boot.
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