Featured Recipe
The Featured Recipe is one or more recipes on our site put to use to make a delightful dessert. Here we used three from our site, which also may be found on our index:

Orange Glass
Pan-Toasted Poundcake
Candied Orange Zest

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Orange Glass with Marinated Oranges and Candied Orange Zest
Liqueur splashed orange segments served with paper thin Orange Glass cookies, candied orange zest and sticks of toasted poundcake.

Copyright © 2005 Beach Cuisine™, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Recipe created and executed by Renee Shelton at home.
Photo taken by Renee Shelton in her home studio.

A light dessert perfect for the hot summer month of August. This can be made ahead easily. It is beautiful for a formal dessert with a splash of Muscat de Beaumes de Venise, Essensia or a sweet Banyuls. This can elevate a simple beach cook out into something memorable for the whole family drizzled with a vanilla bean simple syrup; simply pack each component separately and assemble when needed.

Click here for assembly

Orange Glass
These are paper thin cookies that are best baked on a silicone sheet: they spread and are thin and very fragile. Use only fresh, salted butter (not margarine) for these.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Place a silicone baking sheet on a cookie sheet or a sheet pan.

Measure and sift together the powdered sugar and cake flour. Add in the orange juice, then the melted butter. Stir to smooth. Place 1/2 tsp. mounds onto silicone baking sheet and spread out with the back of a teaspoon. Bake in oven for about 6 to 8 minutes, depending on the size of the cookie and the spread diameter. Bake until evenly browned. Let rest on sheet pan for a minute or two until it sets up enough to shape. If very large cookies, crumble slightly and use as a base for sabayon or zabaglione desserts and fresh berries or lightly sweetened whipped cream and fruits. If small place in a tuile former, over the rim of a wide-rimmed bowl, or in the bottom of mini muffin cups to shape. These are also lovely kept flat and used as a garnish as is or broken into little pieces. See notes at left.
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Toasted Poundcake
This is poundcake in the truest sense: eggs, butter, sugar and flour. Milk is added to the measure of eggs to make equal 1/2 cup portions of the ingredients. See note below. The recipe produces a fine textured cake suitable for toasting on an oiled griddle. This is also great for trifle recipes or recipes wanting to soak up liquid, or use for cake squares for chocolate fondue.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a loaf pan.

Beat with a wooden spoon the softened butter until creamy. Add the sugar and blend until very smooth. Add in the milk and beat until incorporated, then the eggs one at a time, adding the next only when the first is incorporated into the batter. Measure in the flour and beat until smooth. Pour batter into a prepared pan and level off. Pound once or twice on a counter to remove any air bubbles. Bake in oven for about 35 to 40 minutes.

Note: We started with cracking two large eggs into a half-cup measure cup. We added 4 t milk to make the measure level. You may need more or less milk depending on the size of the large eggs you use, or none at all. Our tested large eggs required 4 t to make a 1/2 cup measure level. Your goal is to have 1/2 cup of the liquid total.
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Marinated Oranges

Peel and segment oranges into a bowl. Remove any seeds, and any peel, pith or skin of the segments as you do so. Segment oranges over a bowl to catch any juice that falls. Drizzle oranges to taste with a Muscat de Beaumes de Venise (a personal favorite), or Essensia, an Orange Muscat from Quady Winery in California, or even something as unique as a sweet Banyuls. For a non-alcoholic dessert (but equally resplendent) splash with a little flavored simple syrup spiked with a freshly scraped vanilla bean, steep some simple syrup with a cinnamon stick or maybe splash the segments with some orange flower water. Toss to coat all oranges, and taste to adjust any flavorings adding more liqueur, wine, syrup, a touch of sugar or plain orange juice as needed. Let set in refrigerator for about 30 minutes before serving.
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Candied Orange Zest
This candy can by used to garnish an unlimited amount of pastry and desserts. Use Navel oranges as these oranges have thicker peels and will give you thicker strands of zested orange rind.

Take three oranges and wash well; dry. Pour about one cup of granulated sugar in a cake pan or pie tin and set aside. Using a zesting tool, remove the orange part of the rind in long, thin strips starting at the top of the orange and with even pressure continue all the way to the bottom. Continue removing all the zest in strips. Rinse well in cool water and set aside. Bring to boil one cup of sugar and half cup of water and add in the orange zest. Reduce heat until it is very gently boiling and continue to cook until the orange zest starts to look translucent. Drain well in a fine mesh sieve (don't rinse with water) and immediately transfer to the dish with the sugar. Toss and separate each strand of zested orange rind so that each strip is completely coated with sugar. Add more sugar if necessary. Let set for a few minutes and continue tossing. Let set another few minutes and toss again. Very gently remove from the sugar as needed for garnish. Can be used immediately or keep for up to a week in a tightly covered container.

For Assembly of Dessert:

Take the marinated oranges and place in serving dishes. Top with the orange glass. In the above picture, we created large pieces, then let them cool and broke them up into pieces. Place desired amount of orange zest on the top, and stick a piece of the toasted poundcake with the dessert. This is great served with either a dessert wine or coffee or tea. Have fun creating!