Cranberry Tarts
Cranberry Tarts are gorgeous to look at, taste fabulous, and are very easy to make. But I only worked that out, because I just made them for the first time a few weeks ago! I’ve tested this recipe 3 times now, we’ve been eating a lot of tarts, plus I shared some with the other students in my French class for feedback -rave reviews by the way 👌
You see, we had friends from North America planning a visit to our place here in France last month. Knowing this is cranberry season and that cranberries are grown in North America—and cranberries are huge in America, especially around Thanksgiving and Christmas—I thought about creating cranberry tarts for dessert.
Neither fresh nor frozen cranberries were available in this corner of France, so I bought a bag of dried cranberries with a very wild idea involving infusing, custard, and all kinds of grand schemes. Needless to say, the tart filling turned into a gross, lumpy mess that ended up in the bin. The dinner I was planning—Cream of Butternut Soup as a starter, Hoisin Braised Pigs Cheeks for the main—would need another dessert, and the superb Lemon Prosecco Syllabub was whipped up at the last minute and saved the dinner 🙂
A couple of weeks later, I came across a recipe for Cranberry Tarts in Olive magazine, and this became the inspiration for the cranberry tarts recipe I am sharing. I’m not copying the recipe from the magazine, because I didn’t totally copy the recipe—click the link above for the original recipe, if you like. Fresh cranberries were found in a speciality grocery shop, and I made the tart cases using my Basic Shortcrust Pastry recipe, adding an egg yolk and the zest of one medium orange.
If you, like me, were brought up with tinned cranberry sauce on the holiday table, I can promise you that working with fresh cranberries is nothing like the sickly, sticky version of tinned cranberry sauce of old. Cranberries are easy to work with and are superfoods. In fact, I’m thinking of getting more fresh cranberries (if they are still available) and making a cake—I’ll let you know if it turns out 👩🍳
Meanwhile, grab your electronic digital scales, pop your apron on, and let’s get cracking! Your family and friends will be well impressed by these Cranberry Tarts.
Cranberry Tarts
Equipment
- Electronic digital scales
- Food processor optional
- Rolling Pin
- Palette Knife optional
- Baking Beads or dried beans
- Baking Parchment
- Medium Saucepan
- Hand Blender optional
- Conical Strainer or a regular fine mesh strainer
- Medium Heat Proof Bowl
- Whisk
- Pastry Brush optional
- Cooling Rack optional
- 6 10 cm round pastry tarts with removable bottoms 4 inches
Ingredients
Pastry [see Instruction below]
Cranberry Curd Filling
- 400 grams Fresh or frozen cranberries [14 ounces] defrosted if using frozen
- 200 grams Caster Sugar [7 ounces]
- 3 Egg Yolks free range or organic eggs are best
- 75 grams Butter [2.6 ounces OR 5 Tablespoons] cold and cut into cubes
Cream
- 150 ml Whipping Cream [5 ounces] cream with a minimum 38% fat
- 1 Tablespoon Icing Sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon Ground cinnamon
Instructions
Pastry Cases
- Use my recipe for Shortcrust Pastry. Add an egg yolk to the mix and the zest of one medium orange [optional].
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees [355 F] and place the rack in the middle of the oven. Whip an egg white with a drop of water and set aside. Following the recipe, after chiling the pastry dough, unrwap the clingfilm and roll out with a rolling pin to the thickness of a £1 or 1€ [or a 25 cent coin]. Using a 12 cm ring [4.75 inches] cut out 6 circles. Save any excess dough for another purpose.
- Use your palette knife or a butter knife and carefully transfer each circle to the tart tins and gently press the dough into the corners; prick the base with a fork and trim any edges. Using a pastry brush, brush the top edges of the pastry case the part that will be visible once the tart has been filled] with the whipped egg white mixture. Place cut rounds of baking parchment [see Note 1] into the base of each pastry tart case and fill with baking beads or dried beans.
- Bake for 15 minutes, or until starting to turn a lovely golden colour. Remove from the oven, and carefuly remove the beads/beans and the paper. Move the rack up one notch and bake for another 3-5 minutes, or until the bottoms of the pastry have been cooked through and are nice and golden colour. Remove from the oven onto a cooling rack. Remove the pastry cases from the tins when cool enough to handle, or about 10- 15 minutes.
Cranberry Filling
- Put the cranberries, sugar and 150ml [5 ounces] of water in a pan [see Note 3], and simmer over a medium heat for 6-8 minutes, or until the berries burst, and the liquid is syrupy but not jammy. Use a hand blender or tip into a blender to whizz until smooth.
- Place the strainer over a heat proof bowl, and push through the mixture to ensure there are no "bits" and the mixture is smooth.
- Place the heatproof bowl with the cranberry juice mixture over a saucepan oof simmering water, known as a bain marie, and whisk in the the egg yolks for 6-8 minutes or until the mixture thickly coats the back of a spoon, then whisk in the butter in pieces until the mixture is smooth and shiny. ** Note, you will need to continuously whisk during this process.
- Using a spoon or a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle, fill the pastry cases with the cranberry curd mixture [Note 4] Pop in the fridge and chill for at least 1 hour. [Note 5]
To Finish
- Sift the icing sugar and the cinnamon into a bowl with the whipping cream. Using a a hand mixer, beat the cream until soft peaks form. Using a spoon or a piping bag, decorate the top of the tarts and sprinkle a bit of cinnamon or grated nutmeg on top of the whipped cream. Decorating options: mint leaves, or you could add some orange zest to the whipping cream and omit the cinnamon. [Note 6]
