Winter Citrus Love in a Grapefruit Curd Tart + a Grey Salt Collective Food Photography Challenge

Even with temps that dipped well below freezing so far this winter, here in Cincinnati, a happy dose of colorful, sweet, tart, juicy winter citrus, is a quick remedy to my winter blues.

I don’t think I even know anyone who isn’t just a little seduced by mounds of clementines still attached to their green leaved stems, or the deep tones of blood oranges begging to be cut open to show you their gorgeousness, or everyone’s favorite lemons, aka, meyer lemons, finally showing up at the market at this time of the year? Nope.

To celebrate their arrival, there are no shortages of citrus themed recipes online, with the far majority falling into either brightly colored salads or sweet deserts.

This winter citrus recipe search began as a search for both recipes & creative inspiration for another food photography prompt inside our food photography facebook group GREY SALT COLLECTIVE.
(If you’re not already a part of it, learn all about it HERE.)

A quick winter citrus search on Pinterest landed me on a Grapefruit Curd Tart + Chamomile Whipped Cream recipe (below), via Jacquelyn Clark’s beautiful blog (lark & linen) by food contributor Katie, of butterlust.
The fact that I came home with 10 lbs. of ruby pink grapefruits yesterday, pretty much sealed the deal.
RECIPE LINK BELOW.

As it turns out, there are a few of us worked on the same recipe, styling and photographing in our own styles and approaches – which will also serve as a good reminder that no matter how many times something has been done, or how many people may be shooting the very same subject, when you create from a place of authenticity/with your own voice, each version will inherently be different.

I am looking forward to not only eating this tart, but collectively seeing everyone’s unique photographic spin of this sweet recipe.

*PS. I LOVED the color story of this shoot. So juicy fruit-like. A little brighter and more contrast than my usual take, but refreshing all the same.

Special thanks to both Sophia & Tasha for slipping their pretty little hands into my shots, and to Susannah Conway for the sweet little postcard, from years back.

Find the full recipe HERE

A few recipe notes:
In making the tart, I followed the full recipe with the exception of forgetting to add the crushed pistachios (I can’t believe it), but adding crushed, freeze dried raspberries instead, fresh mint leaves, and a sprinkling of powdered sugar. I did not have any small tartlette pans, so I used one large tarlette pan, froze the curd, and cut various sized shapes out of it, instead. To get the whipped cream flowers, after whipping the infusion, place cream in a pastry bag (or plastic baggy) and use your favorite icing piping tip to pipe lots of little flowers onto a small pan lined with parchment paper, and place in the freezer until hard, adding to the tarts right before serving. I have to say that the chamomile infused whipping creme just may have been my very favorite part of this recipe discovery.
Just click on the link above to get Katie’s recipe for this sweet/tart winter citrus desert.

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Curious to see how some of the other Grey Salt Collective’s interpreted their Grapefruit Curd Tarts?
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Kelly Neil
Sarah Hone
Andrea Linn
Dani McDonald
#collaborationovercompetition #greysaltcollective