Blood Orange Tart with Marbled Meringue

So Rachel sent this picture and recipe from Harrod's magazine that she wanted us to try.   Frankly, it looks a bit of a mess to me.  Maybe that's why they didn't take it out of the tart ring.

Here's my version.  Pretty huh?  It even looks better than Harrod's.  BUT WAIT.  HOLD ON.  DON'T GET TOO EXCITED.    Looks can be deceiving.  Believe me.  Let me tell you about this tart.

A few weeks ago, the market had blood oranges on sale at a great price.  Aren't they pretty?  I kept them around for awhile just to enjoy their beauty.

Yesterday, I zested them, I juiced them, and I got out my best ingredients and set to work.

The recipe was a bit puzzling.  I live in America.  We don't use metric measurements, but I have a digital scale.  I got it out and set it to metric.  I weighed out my ingredients, Wow!!!, that is a lot of sugar!  In every part of the recipe!?!  Wait, there is no sugar listed in the pastry crust but the recipe says to cut it into the butter.  Oh well, it can't be more than 1 Tab.  Yeah, sounds about right.  I'm working this crust, thinking it will never work.  (Surprise, the crust was GREAT).

On to the curd. Oh no, not curd.  More like pudding.  American Pudding; not dessert as in British pudding.  I have never seen a filling with this much sugar.  200 grams, (as in about 1 whole cup) and 240 grams of butter.  How will this work?  It didn't.  I cooked and cooked and cooked it.  To the temperature the recipe specified.  It looked like pumpkin pie filling.  The juice of blood oranges does not taste like regular oranges and is a little bitter, so I'm not sure what I was expecting; but certainly not this.  Finally, it thickened.

Into the shell it goes.  Now on to the meringue.

Oh no!!!  More sugar.  How can egg whites possibly support another 200 grams of sugar and still hold a peak?

Answer.....They can't of course.  No stiff peaks here.  No wonder the picture looks like it was dumped into the tart.  That's the only way to do it.

The marbling is pretty though.  Torch it (always fun).

Taste it.    EWWWWW!!! (less fun).  The high point here...you can't see the filling (it's brown) because the meringue is so soft.

Put it in the fridge.  Maybe someone will get really hungry. 

OK, so later I come back and open the fridge.   Here's what I see.  Honest, this was not staged.

The sad thing is, all that work and pricey ingredients and the weight loss shake tastes better.  Except for the crust.  Did I mention that it was great?

This tart looks very pretty.  Unfortunately, it tastes terrible.  Way, Way, Way too sweet.  I will be making some modifications, just not anytime soon.   A tart this pretty has possibilities. 

Sorry Rachel.  Harrod's pastry chef should get a new job; preferrably not in Food Services.  I'm wondering if Harrod's got a really big sugar shipment that they are trying to move off the shelves.