Zesty Citrus Custard tarts with home-made Rose Jelly!

It’s Valentines week and it seems that all of a sudden, every shop in our little village has filled with red roses and puffy hearts and fluffy teddy-bears!

We stopped by the flower shop the other day, and where it is usually a very quite corner of a busy road, this time it was buzzing with shoppers choosing from the gorgeous display of fresh, fragrant variety of colorful flowers and pre-ordering the arrangements. Though hubby and I do not celebrate or even wish each other specifically on Valentines day, I do think that making a special day out of honoring your love is a very sweet thing to do. In today’s fast-paced life, we tend to take our precious relationships for granted at times, and forget to acknowledge the importance it has in our lives. So, three cheers for the official day of love! I will make a nice dinner for hubs and me on the 14th and we can savor it together on the dining table for a change, instead of shoving it down with our heads buried in our individual laptops like we usually do.

So, the season of Roses definitely deserves am extra-special romantic dessert. Presenting- an easy and delicious dessert that is sure to knock the socks off your sweet Valentine. A crumbly, tangy sweet custard tart, topped with delicate rose-flavored jelly….mmm… sounds delicious, doesn’t it? Not to forget, rose petals embedded in that pastel shade of  a pink bed of jelly..I mean cummonnn!!!! What can be more well-suited for Valentines day? In the game of ‘who made more effort to make Valentines extra-special’, this stunning sweet-treat is guaranteed to tip the scales in your favor! *Wink…wink!*

I am a huge fan of the You-tuber Laura-Vitale (Who isn’t?) and I always make the citrus custard for this tart with her fool-proof recipe. For the tart-base though, I really don’t prefer the store-bought short-crust pastry and I am too lazy to make my own. Thus, I stick to making a basic biscuit-base from the left-over cookies for my tarts and trust me, it works wonders! It’s easy, a great way to use left-over cookies and the whole combo tastes so so yummy. Remember the candy-cane cookies I had made on Christmas? Well, I had frozen a batch for future use and yesterday, it all got beautifully consumed in these tarts. Speaking of the rose flavored jelly, you can easily substitute this with store-bought rose-flavored jelly but I made my own from scratch using gelatine. So for me, it turned out to be a happy GELATINES day!! 😉 😀 (Sorry….that was bad!!)

Anyway.

A note- I don’t own a large tart-pan so I divided the elements and made two small little tarts instead. The measurements I have shared here are for 1 large custard tart.

Have a lovey-dovey, rosy-cosy and extra-special Valentines Day, foodies! May this day be filled with love, understanding, and contentment as you journey through life with those you hold dear. Have fun! xx

Ingredients:

For the tart base-

– 1.5 cups powdered cookies/biscuits/Graham crackers (Wrap your cookies in a plastic bag and beat the c*** out of them with your rolling pin!)

– 2 tbsn Caster sugar

– 5 tbsn melted butter

For the custard-

– 4 eggs

– 1/2 cup sugar

– 2/3 cup heavy cream

– Zest of 1 Orange

– Juice of 1/2 Orange

– Zest of 1 lemon

– A pinch of salt

For the home-made rose-flavored jelly-

– 300 ml water

–  3 heaped tsp powdered Gelatin (2 grams/100 ml)

– 2 tbsn Caster sugar

– A couple of drops of Rose-extract/essence

– 1/2 tsp Rose water

– A speck of pink food color

Also needed-

– Edible pink flowers of your choices (preferably Roses or cherry-blossoms)

Method:

– Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees Celcius.

– Start by making your tart-crust. In a food-processor, combine your powdered biscuits, melted butter and sugar. Blend till well-combined.

– Take a greased tart pan and with your hand or the bottom of a small cup, press the biscuit mixture to the bottom and around the edges of the pan such that it resembles a pie-crust. This takes time but be patient till you get a beautiful, sturdy base for your tart.

– Bake at 180 degrees C for around 8-10 minutes, or till the crust looks well-set and browned in places. Set aside to cool. Let the oven be on, as we will put the tart in very soon.

– Next, prepare your creamy custard! Simple whisk together all of the mentioned ingredients under the custard list, till you have a nice smooth mixture.

– Once your tart-base has cooled down, pour your custard mix in upto 3/4th of the pan’s height.

– Reduce the heat in the oven to around 150 degrees Celsius and put in your tart to bake nicely for around 30 minutes or till the custard looks thoroughly cooked and the tooth-pick inserted in the middle comes our clean.

– Take out your tart from the oven and set to cool completely in the pan itself for at least 1 hour.

– Once the custard tart has cooled down completely, make your delectable rose-flavored jelly! In a pan, put your water to boil.

– As the water is simmering, add in your sugar and rose extract as well. Switch off the gas.

– Into this hot water, sprinkle the gelatin powder and whisk well till it disappears completely.

– Add the pink color and rose-water to this water and mix well with a spoon.

– Let the gelatin water comes to a room-temperature and transfer to the refrigerator for around 20 minutes, till the consistency changes from watery to syrupy! Keep a close eye on your mix as all of a sudden it can take form of a wobbly jelly..it has to be poured on the top of the tart right before that stage!

– Arrange your edible flower petals on top of your tart in an attractive manner.

– Once the jelly water comes to a nice, syrup like consistency, pour it on top of your tart till the very brim of the pan.

– Transfer carefully to the refrigerator to chill over-night or at least 3-4 hours, till the jelly sets completely!

– Cut your wonderful set citrus tart with rose jelly, in slices. Serve as dessert with vanilla ice-cream or a dollop of Crème fraîche on your romantic Valentines date! Enjoy!

*Notes-

– You can use rose-syrup or even other flavors of syrup while making your jelly. The reason I didn’t use a rose-flavored syrup is that it would have given a very dark color to the jelly where I wanted a very soft, pastel shade of pink in it instead. Thus, rose extract and rose water gave a nice, subtle flavor to my jelly which was exactly what I wanted.

– Many people use regular rose petals in their recipes instead of specific edible flower range. If you decide to do so, make sure your roses are entirely pesticide-free or better still, use the roses that you grow in your garden yourself.