Spanish Orange Tart

From the 2003 KLO dinner — Spanish Tapas

Spanish Orange Tart

• 3 eggs
• 10 oz sugar
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• zest of one orange, minced (without the bitter white pith)
• 10 oz flour, sifted with: 1/2 oz powdered yeast (1 tsp)
• Syrup:
• Zest from two oranges used in Presentation below
• 1-3/4 quarts fresh squeezed orange juice
• 30 oz sugar
• Presentation:
• 2 whole oranges

Beat the eggs with the sugar until they turn white. Add the milk, olive oil, and the minced orange zest. Lastly, add bit by bit and stirring constantly, the sifted flour and yeast. Brush an 8″ round baking pan with olive oil and dust with sugar and flour. Fill it with the batter. Bake in a preheated 400 F oven for one hour. Remove from the oven, unmold and let cool thoroughly.

Using a vegetable peeler, remove the zest from the oranges, being careful to get only the colored part of the skin. Cut away and discard any bitter white pith from the oranges. Peel the oranges and cut the zest into julienne strips. Place the orange juice in a saucepan with the julienned peel and the sugar. Cook for 1/2 hour until a thick syrup forms. Strain and reserve part of the julienned strips and 1/2 cup of the syrup, for later glazing the tart. Slowly pour the rest of the syrup over the cake, so that it soaks through. Place on a serving dish.

To finish the tart, reduce the saved 1/2 cup syrup to 3 Tbsp and with a spatula spread the glaze on the cake. Arrange the julienned strips into a little hill in the middle, surrounded by a crown of whole sections of the two oranges.