cranberry curd tart

[redbird]

Adrian and Cattitude made a cranberry curd tart a couple of days ago: cranberry curd poured into a baked crust, the same pastry shell he used for quiche and for the onion tart.

It sounded more interesting than it turned out to be, and we agreed that it was food but not worth the effort. It's impressively pink, but not very cranberry-flavored; the main flavor is orange, from the zest of a single orange.

The cranberry curd involved cooked cranberry, blended and then pushed through a sieve, mixed with margarine (instead of butter or cream). I might have liked a dairy version better, but it still wouldn't have been worth the effort, even if Adrian and Cattitude could eat the dairy version). It's been a while since I bought lemon or other citrus curd, after not finishing the last jar I opened, but I'm thinking of trying again, just for a change.

Comments

[sine_nomine]

Which cranberry curd tart recipe did you all use?

[adrian_turtle]

There are a lot of similar ones, differing mostly in how the crust is made. We just used Cattitude's standard tart crust (in large part because Vicki doesn't like almonds, and grinding other nuts is a pain.)

I don't remember the source. The crust is baked and cooled before being filled. The recipe for the filling is:

12 ounces cranberries (we used a 12-ounce bag, discarding the mushy ones. Maybe 10 or 11 ounces?)
0.75 cups grand marnier (we used orange juice)
1 cup brown sugar
pinch salt (omitted because the margarine was salted)
0.5 cup softened butter (we used Earth Balance, our usual non-dairy margarine)
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
zest of 1 orange

Simmer cranberries with juice and sugar until very soft. Blend until very smooth. Press through a sieve and discard solids. (This was the part Redbird heard me complaining about at such length.) Stir margarine into the warm cranberry liquid a little at a time, then put it back in the saucepan.

Whisk eggs with egg yolks in a small bowl, and add a cup of the cranberry liquid. Add the egg mixture to the cranberry mixture and heat it to a low simmer, stirring continuously. Cook 5-10 minutes, until it thickens. Then stir in the orange zest, pour into a shallow bowl to cool for 10 minutes, and THEN scrape into the pie shell. (This was also kind of a pain, because of all the dishwashing.) Refrigerate for 3 hours to set.

[sine_nomine]

Thanks! In truth, I was curious what the source was, not the actual recipe. We've made the NYT cranberry tart and loved it - though we used a gluten-free pie shell because we can't be arsed to try and make something like a crust out of nuts

I am sorry you all didn't like it.

[azurelunatic]

Huh, I wonder if you could get a better flavor with lingonberries (I say, as an Alaskan lowbush cranberry fan). (The usual place I get them here in the Lower 48 is Ikea lingonberry jam.)

[mrissa]

We make everything better. Signed, one of the Lingons

(yes, that's where my surname comes from)

[redbird]

You absolutely do. Lingonberry jam stopped being readily available around here (Boston) a few years ago, and the specialty groceries that used to have it now only sell less dense/set preserved lingonberries. But that perserve is fine for mixing into yogurt or oatmeal, and might work for this, or for my grandmother's linzer torte. Hers is I think close to the standard German recipe of a century ago, except that it calls for fresh cranberries instead of raspberries, that being the fruit she had available in Brooklyn by the time I was growing up. [She was from eastern Germany, and came here in 1946.]

[sine_nomine]

Good to know and OMG using lingonberry could be amazing!

[anne]

Thanks for saving me the trouble!

[pameladean]

I wonder if cranberry juice concentrate might work better, whether in addition to or instead of cranberries.

I'd have to modify it further, since I assume it has eggs in it, but I'm curious about the concept.

P.

[adrian_turtle]

It's basically an egg custard. I'm not sure what egg substitute you'd use. Maybe chia? Or make a cornstarch custard instead? I don't know if ours had less intense cranberry flavor because we used fewer cranberries, starting with a 12-ounce bag and discarding the duds, rather than discarding the duds and then measuring out 12 ounces. Or maybe they've been breeding less bitter cranberries (as with brussels sprouts), and in the process making them less flavorful.

The recipe (using an almond crust) was published by the NYT as a Thanksgiving recommendation a few years ago, and became a minor trend copied by a lot of people.