Gooey Orange Tarts – Easy Recipe

I found a lovely recipe when I was watching some videos on Youtube. It was for some orange tarts. Made in a muffin pan the tarts had a runny centre. They looked very good indeed. So I decided that I would like to try them.

First let me tell you where I found the recipe. It was on Ricette Fatte in Casa. The tarts were shortcrust pastry with an easy orange sauce in the middle. When cut, while still warm, the filling was nice and runny. I found that very appealing. So I decided that I would make them, but with a couple of changes to the recipe.

Changes to recipe

The first change was to incorporate some orange zest into the pastry. The second change was to change the ratio of liquids to increase the orange flavour in the filling. In addition there was a third change. But that happen as I was making the tarts. The original recipe used 300g of flour. But as I made the pastry dough I thought it was too wet. That may have been due to including the zest in the pastry, causing a reaction. But however it happened I added another 50g of flour to get the dough to the consistency required.

The orange filling is very simple. It is just orange juice, lemon juice, water, sugar and corn flour mixed together and cooked until it thickens.

The pastry is pressed into muffin cups and filled with cooked sauce. Then little balls of dough are placed around the edge. As the tarts bake the pastry expands as does the filling. The filling remains liquid until the tarts are fully cooled. So eaten warm will give a runny filling. Eaten cold the filling will be soft but firmer.

For a thicker filling you could use more cornflour.

My Bake

My tarts baked very well indeed. They had a perfectly cooked pastry. It was crisp on the outside but had a shortcake texture too. The filling stayed runny, whilst warm. So cutting open a tart let the awesome sauce run out. The tarts were a perfect combination of pastry and orange filling . So, a wonderful dessert.

I loved these tarts and will make them again, with other fillings such as passion fruit.

Another lovely tart recipe is Maids of Honour Tarts

Gooey Orange Tarts – Easy Recipe

Course: Cakes, DessertsDifficulty: Easy

Servings

9

servings

Prep time

1

hour 

Cooking time

20

minutes

Ingredients

• Pastry

• 350g(2 1/3 cups, based on scooping packed flour into a 250ml cup) plain flour – see note below

• 8g(2 tsp) baking powder

• 100g(1/2 cup) caster sugar

• 100ml(7 tbsp) flavourless oil

• 2 medium eggs(large in USA)

• zest from 2 oranges

• Filling
  

• 300ml(1 1/4 cups) orange juice

• 45ml(3 tbsp) lemon juice

• 60ml(1/4 cup) water

• 100g(1/2 cup) caster sugar

• 16g(2 tbsp) cornflour – see not below for a thicker sauce

Directions

• Grease and flour 9 holes of a muffin pan.
• Place the flour, baking powder, sugar and zest into a large bowl and stir to combine.
• Add the oil and eggs and mix until everything starts to clump into a dough.
• Use your hands to squeeze the mixture into a soft dough. If the dough is still quite wet you can add a little more flour.
• Take about 1/4 of the pastry dough and set aside.
• Divide the remaining 3/4 dough into 9 pieces.
• Roll each piece into a ball and press into the muffin cups, spreading across the base and up the sides.
• Place the muffin pan into the fridge to cool the pastry cups.
• Pinch small pieces off the set aside dough and roll into balls. You will need about 72 balls, but fewer is fine if you make larger balls.
• Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/400F.
• Place all the ingredients for the filling into a pan and whisk until combined.
• Place the pan on the stove and bring to the boil, whisking all the time.
• Cook the filling until it thickens.
• Take the muffin pan out of the fridge and spoon a couple of tablespoons of filling sauce into each pastry cup.
• Place the little dough balls onto the filling, around the edge.
• Bake the tarts in the oven for 20 minutes.
• Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes then carefully transfer to a wire rack to cook until needed.
• Sift some icing sugar over the top if you wish.

Notes

• The original recipe used only 300g flour, but I found that I needed 350g. Have some extra flour available in case you find you need even more.
• If you want a thicker sauce you can add more cornflour before cooking the sauce. If you decide you need more as it is cooking mix some cornflour with a little water and then add, slowly, to the cooking sauce, stirring all the time.