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Blood Orange Creme Brulee Tarts

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Blood Orange Creme Brulee Tarts are rich, creamy, and packed with fresh flavor from juicy blood oranges and sweet coconut milk custard. Topped witih a caramelized sugar crust. Can you dream of a better dessert? 

blood orange creme brulee tarts

I’m not sure what it is about tiny tarts that has me completely smitten. Especially mini tarts of the custard variety – like the gin and tonic tarts I shared recently. Perhaps it’s the crumbly pastry base or the velvety custard filling that retains that slight wobble. So when I picked up a bunch of beautiful blood oranges with ruby flecked skin I knew that they were destined to be made into these fancy little orange creme brulee tarts.

What is a Creme Brulee Tart?

I have always been a huge creme brulee junkie – I blame it on my Italian roots. I didn’t have much of a sweet totth growing up, but creme brulee was one of the few desserts that I could always polish off. We reserved it for special occassions, like Christmas or family celebrations.

Creme brulee literally means “burnt cream”, a reference to the caramelized crust that sits atop most varieties. The inside of the creme brulee tart is a creamy custard, usually flavored with vanilla or caradmom. More inventive recipes infuse flavors like orange or even ginger!

While often thought of as an Italian dessert (and definitely popular in Italian culture), creme brulee is actually thought to have originated in Catalonia. The first recipes for creme brulee tarts appeared in Catalan cookbooks dating back to the 16th century. In those recipes, the custard was topped with sugar and burnt with a hot, iron rod! I guess we have simplified things these days with the invention of these tiny kitchen torches.

Let’s Make Blood Orange Creme Brulee Tarts!

orange creme brulee tart

Moving on to these blood orange creme brulee tarts… they really are something special. Now traditional creme brulees are truly just custard with a sugar crust. They are usually served in individual ramekins. I put my own spin on this and turned them into little tarts with a flaky, pastry crust.

Since I try to limit dairy, I experimented with coconut milk instead of the traditional cream. It was amazing! The custard still had a great creaminess, and the coconut flavor added a whole new dimension to the creme brulee tarts. In fact, the coconut was a really great match for the fresh citrus flavors from the blood oranges.

The only disappointment is that despite the vibrant ruby red juice of the blood oranges, the filling of these Blood Orange Creme Brûlée Tarts takes on an slightly brownish tone when cooked. I was hoping for more of that bright red color! But you can’t win them all. I knew they would taste amazing anyway.

You will need a kitchen torch to transform the sugar into that iconic crunchy, golden crust. Don’t skip this – we all know it’s the best part!

orange creme brulee tart

Blood Orange Brulee Tarts
4.75 from 4 votes
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Blood Orange Creme Brulee Tarts

These blood orange creme brulee tarts are heaven in a tiny pastry shell! Packed with creamy custard, fresh citrus flavor, and topped with a caramelized sugar crust.

Course Dessert
Cuisine Dessert
Prep Time 45 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 5 minutes
Servings 8
Calories 254 kcal
Author Delicious Everyday

Ingredients

  • PASTRY
  • 1 cup plain flour sifted, all purpose, 200g
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar sifted, 30g
  • 5 tbsp unsalted butter chilled, chopped into cubes, 75g
  • zest of 1 blood orange
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1/4 cup cold water 60ml
  • TART FILLING
  • 2 eggs
  • 2/3 cup coconut milk 150ml
  • 1/3 cup caster sugar 70g
  • zest of 2 oranges
  • 2/3 cup of freshly squeezed blood orange juice 150ml
  • BRULEE TOPPING
  • 1 tbsp sugar

Instructions

  1. Start by making the pastry. In the bowl of a food processor add the flour and sugar and process to combine. Add the orange zest and butter and pulse until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk and water and process until the mixture starts to come together. Remove from the food processor and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

  2. Preheat the oven to 355 degrees (180 Celsius) and lightly grease 8 10cm loose bottom mini tart tins. Roll out the pastry until roughly 5mm thick and then cut circles from the pastry that are 2 cm larger in diameter than the tart tin. Line the each tart tin and trim excess. Chill for 15 minutes before lining with baking paper and filling with pastry weights. Bake for 7 minutes before removing the weights and baking for a further 3 minutes or until dry and lightly golden. Set aside to cool.

  3. For the filling whisk together the eggs, caster sugar, orange zest and juice. Add the coconut milk and whisk until combined. Carefully divide the filling between the mini tarts and bake for 7 to 10 minutes or until the filling is just set. Set aside to cool.
  4. Just before serving sprinkle a little sugar over each tart and use a kitchen torch to melt the sugar to a light caramel.

Recipe Notes

If you don't have coconut milk substitute with cream.

Nutrition Facts
Blood Orange Creme Brulee Tarts
Amount Per Serving
Calories 254 Calories from Fat 117
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 13g 20%
Saturated Fat 8g 40%
Cholesterol 84mg 28%
Sodium 22mg 1%
Potassium 123mg 4%
Total Carbohydrates 31g 10%
Dietary Fiber 0g 0%
Sugars 18g
Protein 3g 6%
Vitamin A 7.1%
Vitamin C 12.8%
Calcium 2.5%
Iron 9.4%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

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Comments

  4. Welcome back from your honeymoon! Kinda hard to get back, no? Heehee! Anyways, these tarts are divine! I wanna reach out into my screen and grab a few.

    Reply

  6. Welcome back and hope that you are feeling much better! Love blood oranges but do not see them in Bahrain very often! The tarts look so delicious and I just love eating the whole lot! 🙂

    Reply

  8. No apologies for taking time to get back to blogging. You were just married, lady!!! More time should be spent on other things 😉

    That said, I am glad that you and your deliciousness are back on the scene. We just picked a mass of blood oranges from hubby’s Nan’s tree, so I think I’ll get to quick work on these.

    Reply

  9. Hi. Beautiful recipe.. I was wondering, how do you remove the tarts from the tart tins while maintaining the beautiful crust. Mine always crumble despite I have already buttered them prior to baking. Your tips are most helpful.
    Thank you and have a nice day 🙂

    Reply

    • Hi Amy,

      Sorry I didn’t see your comment sooner. For some reason it ended up in my spam. Anyway, in response to your question, I don’t find any issues with my tart crust crumbling. It sounds like perhaps your pastry mixture might be too dry. Next time you make the dough try adding a little more moisture. I always add an egg yolk to mine, which also helps stop the pastry from shrinking. Let me know how it goes 😀

      Reply

  15. Hope you had a fantastic honeymoon!
    Love creme brulee – my favourite moment is that satisfying crack through that wonderful toffee! Creme brulee would have to be one of my favourite desserts, I can never resist it.

    Reply

  16. I love that crunchy sugar topping and the idea of these flavours together has my mouth watering. What a happy return to blogging!

    Reply

  17. Welcome back! I’ve been wanting to make bruleed tartlets ever since I saw them in the Bourke St Bakery cookbook. These look absolutely gorgeous – bookmarked for when blood oranges are in season in the UK!

    Reply

  21. What beautiful looking tarts! Great idea including blood oranges into the traditional recipe 🙂 My fave part is definitely cracking the brûlée toffee top! I especially love the movie Amélie where she takes such pleasure in it hehe.

    Reply

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