Tangerine Tart With Cookie Crust

This fabulous tart is from my friend and fellow blogger, Patti Londre, from Worth The Whisk. Patti has previously been a guest blogger on my main recipe blog, Lindaraxa's Garden, last fall. She's a great baker and has a wonderful blog; moreover, she also takes great pictures with her new camera which took forever to come to her door. All of Twitter held its breath until camera was finally on hand!

Tangerine Tart With Cookie Crust
by Worth The Whisk on March 1, 2010

Dinner party at Barbara and David’s – pleeeeze let me bring Tangerine Tart. For more than a decade, I’ve held onto this Sunset Magazine page. You see, the prolific tangerine tree that came with this house disappeared the day our yard was demo’d for landscaping. Waaaaa. Not sure why I never just bought fruit to make the tart; maybe I was insecure. Tangerines can do that to you (juicy? seeds? hard to peel? watery? acidic? good zest?)

This recipe was clipped in the year 2000 from Sunset’s Kitchen Cabinet column of readers’ recipes. Liz Strongman of Seattle is the creator. It’s a tangerine-infused cookie crust, tangerine filling, tangerine whipped cream. Whoa, I am skipping the whipped cream. And adjusted the instructions a bit to be clearer (see my note about pouring the filling).

My road trip to Ojai in search of the Pixie snacking tangerine resulted in a great education from my new friends at Friend’s Ranches citrus growers. For example, the W. Murcutt Tangerine is a luscious cooking citrus. More acidic than Pixie, juicier and a great peel for the “zest” in recipes. But dang, how to remember this variety’s name when standing at Friend’s Ranch farmers market stand? I decided to call it William H. Macy (you know… Fargo, Boogie Nights). Kind of looks like him, all redhead and slightly lumpy-bumpy.

Tangerine Tart with Cookie Crust
Adjusted from Sunset Magazine

COOKIE CRUST

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 tsp. grated tangerine peel “zest”
14 Tbsp. (3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp.) butter or margarine, in chunks
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. In a food processor, whirl flour, sugar and zest to blend. Add butter one chunk at a time while whirling, just until dough holds together. Press over bottom and up sides of a 10-inch tart pan with removable rim. Bake 25 to 35 minutes or until crust is lightly browned.

(NOTE — Instead of taking the hot tart shell out of the oven, have the filling ready to pour straight into the baked crust while still on the rack. This help to avoid a wobbly transfer back into the oven. Larry saw me do the other way, slopped some filling down the cabinet front, and suggested this. Smart.)

FILLING

2 large eggs
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp. grated tangerine peel “zest”
1/2 cup fresh tangerine juice (3 to 4 juicy tangerines, such as W. Murcott variety)
1 1/2 Tbsp. fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup half-and-half (light cream)
In a bowl with a mixer on high speed, beat eggs and granulated sugar until well blended. Add tangerine zest, tangerine juice, lemon juice and half-and-half. Beat until blended. Pour into baked cookie crust. Bake at 325 degrees F. 30 to 40 minutes or until the filling no longer jiggles in the center when the pan is gently shaken. Let cool completely on a rack, about an hour. Makes 8 to 10 servings.