Daring bakers Challenge No. 2

The 2010 March Daring Baker’s challenge was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings. She chose Orange Tian as the challenge for this month, a dessert based on a recipe from Alain Ducasse’s Cooking School in Paris.

I have never made anything remotely like this Orange Tian before so it was certainly a first! The marmelade in particular posed some rather unique challenges and although it did not set as stiffly as I would have liked due to my lack of pectin, I was very happy with the taste of the result and will certainly be using the leftovers on my morning toast! That will tech me to try and be clever and use a concoction of 2 different marmalade recipes so that I could try and use the orange's natural pectin rather than just adding some from a bottle! I did however enjoy the whole marmalade making process, despite the ratehr substantial mess it made. My kitchen smelled like oranges for 3 days afterwards which made me smile whenever I walked in the house - nature's air-freshener at its best!

The Pate Sablee part of the challenge was smooth sailing thanks to the excellent recipe provided by Jennifer. I am always a little scared of pastry, mainly due to its reputation of being the downfall of even the most experienced of baker, but this time I was cool calm and collected while it mixed, chilled, rolled and baked. As for the cream, that was whipped up in no time pardon the rather lame pun!)

Roll on next month's challenge!