Cranberry Curd Tart

When I first saw NYT Food's Instagram post featuring a cranberry curd tart I knew I needed to make it if only because of how gorgeous it was.  But each time I made it I couldn't figure out how to photograph it so that the picture would do it justice.  Which meant I just kept making it over and over again.  Awful, I know.  Then this last time I got a pomegranate in my Boston Organics delivery and decided to try sprinkling some on top of the tart for some contrast, and it finally looked as good as it tasted!  They also give the tart a little crunch and freshness to cut all the richness.

For the crust, instead of the using the hazelnut crust in the original recipe, I used Smitten Kitchen's "great unshrinkable sweet tart shell" because hazelnuts are expensive and it's pretty much a no-fail recipe.  To save time and effort, I usually end up just pressing the dough into the tart pan right after making it (starting with the edges), docking it, and then freezing it for 30 minutes before blind baking it with the buttered aluminum foil on top.  Feel free to use whatever tart crust you prefer, though, as long as it's blind baked beforehand.  I can see Thomas Keller's pine crust tart crust being amazing for this recipe.

For the cranberry curd, make sure that you don't overcook it after adding the eggs, because the egg whites curdle really easily if the mixture gets too hot.  Since it's kind of hard to tell when it starts to thicken, the sign I look for is when steam starts rising off the top.  You definitely don't want the mixture to start bubbling, and it helps to keep stirring to distribute the heat.

Cranberry Curd Tart (adapted from The New York Times)
makes a 9" tart

Your favorite 9" sweet tart crust, blind baked
12 oz. cranberries
1 cup sugar
Juice and zest from 1 orange
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 eggs plus 2 egg yolk
Pomegranate arils, for garnishing (optional)

Heat the cranberries, sugar, orange juice, and zest in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Cook until the cranberries have popped and softened, about 10 minutes.  Transfer to a blender and blend until smooth.  Strain the mixture through a sieve back into the saucepan and add the butter.

Whisk the eggs and egg yolks in a bowl, then add a couple of ladlefuls of the liquid into the bowl and whisk to temper the eggs.  Pour everything back into the saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until slightly thickened and steam just starts coming off.  Cool to room temperature, then transfer to the fridge to cool completely, preferably overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Pour the cooled curd into the blind-baked tart crust.  Bake for 15 minutes to set the curd.  Allow to cool completely before garnishing with pomegranate arils.

Next:  Pull-Apart Scallion Swirly Bread
Previously:  Pear Apple Cranberry Slab Pie
Two Years Ago:  Pull-Apart Thanksgiving Leftover Stuffed Bread
Three Years Ago:  Thai Coconut Sticky Rice with Mango
Four Years Ago:  Vanilla Passion Caramels
Seven Years Ago:  Wah Guay (Taiwanese Rice Cake with Meat Sauce)

Pear Apple Cranberry Slab Pie

Sometimes you get an idea in your head that you just need to make a reality.  This was one of those times.  I already had alphabet cookie cutters from another project and a good slab pie recipe.  I didn't have any leaf cookie cutters, but those were easy enough to freehand cut out of the dough.

For the filling I used up fruits that had been accumulating from my Boston Organics deliveries and ended up using 3 pears, 2 apples, and 4 oz. of cranberries, which I think ended up being about 5-6 cups of chopped fruit.  I liked how the cranberries added a little tartness and color to the otherwise simply sweet filling.  (If you want to add more than 4 oz. of cranberries, I would also up the amount of sugar to account for the additional tartness.)

I cheated a little and didn't make a bottom crust, but in the end I think that was a good call because it saved a lot of time and aggravation and really, no one likes the soggy bottom crust right?  That meant I could make the top crust a little thicker and have plenty of dough left for the cut outs.  If I had had the time, I would've added more leaves, but for my first attempt at pie dough decorations, I think it went pretty well.  =)

Pear Apple Cranberry Slab Pie
makes a 9" x 13" slab pie

2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
2 tablespoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
12 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cubed
3 tablespoons ice water, more as needed
3 pears, peeled and chopped
2 apples, peeled and chopped
4 oz. fresh cranberries
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 egg, beaten

Remove a heaping tablespoon of flour from the 2 cups and reserve for the filling.  Mix the remaining flour, sugar, and salt together in a food processor.  Add the butter and pulse until the butter has been cut into pea-sized pieces.  Add the water and pulse to combine.  Add more water if needed, a teaspoon at a time, just until the dough comes together.  Form the dough into a disc, wrap with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Place the chilled dough on a large piece of floured parchment paper or Silpat and roll the dough out to a 9" x 13" rectangle about 1/6" thick.  You should have enough leftover dough to make cut outs from.  Cover and return to the refrigerator while you prepare the filling.

Mix the sugar with the reserved flour and cinnamon,  Toss with the chopped pears, apples, and cranberries.  Pour into a 9" x 13" baking pan.

Decorate the pie dough as you like and place it over the fruit.  Make an egg wash by mixing the beaten egg with 1 tablespoon of water.  Brush the entire crust with the egg wash.  Bake for 20 minutes, then rotate and bake for another 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Next:  Cranberry Curd Tart
Previously:  Soy Garlic Glazed Korean Fried Cauliflower
Last Year:  Pad Thai
Two Years Ago:  Raindrop Cake
Three Years Ago:  My Mom's Taiwanese Sticky Rice
Four Years Ago:  Duchikey (Simplified Turkducken)
Seven Years Ago:  Nanaimo Bars
Eight Years Ago:  Homemade Crystallized Ginger

Cranberry-Port Gelée

It's probably been a good 10 years since I went home to my parents' place for Thanksgiving.  I usually spend the holiday with friends instead and love having them over for a potluck style meal.  One of our friends, let's call him Jerry, is not the most kitchen savvy, so a few years ago I assigned him the task of bringing the cranberry sauce.  Specifically, one can of cranberry sauce.  Instead of obeying my instructions, he brought two cans and promised to finish it all because he loves cranberry sauce.  Guess what:  he didn't finish it all.  In fact, he didn't even finish the first can.  But since he loves cranberry sauce, he took home the opened can to finish on his own.

Fast forward one year to when it was his turn to host Thanksgiving.  This is when we found out, to our horror, that he still had the opened can of cranberry sauce sitting in his fridge.  From a year ago.  And he thought it would be okay to serve it to us.  *shivers*

Sadly, Jerry can't join us this year for Thanksgiving, so I figured it was high time to try making cranberry sauce from scratch.  I wanted something similar to the familiar canned version but a little classier and distinctly homemade.  Enter Food52's Genius Recipe for Canal House's Cranberry-Port Gelée.  I adapted the original recipe by adding a bit of orange juice and substituting cloves for the juniper berries.  You could also use rosemary if you want the juniper berry woodsiness or a cinnamon stick and star anise for more warmth.

Cranberry-Port Gelée (adapted from Food52)
makes about 2 cups

3/4 cup port (or red wine or Madeira)
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cloves
10 black peppercorns
12-oz bag fresh cranberries

Put the port, sugar, cloves, and peppercorns into a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
  
Add the cranberries and return to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the cranberries burst and are very soft, about 10 minutes more.  Using a large spoon to mash the cranberries a bit so it is easier to strain in the next step.
   
Strain the sauce into a bowl through a fine-mesh sieve, pushing the solids against the screen with the spoon. Stir the thin and thick portions of the strained gelée together.
   
Transfer to a pretty serving bowl or jar.  Cover and refrigerate. It will firm up within a few hours, or can be made several days ahead.

Since I'm hosting Thanksgiving this year, I'll be serving this along with a spatchcocked turkey and also making my corn souffle and a sweet potato casserole.  Others are bringing the salad, mashed potatoes, green beans, and pie.  What will you be having for Thanksgiving?

p.s.  The reason for the sub-par pictures above is because instead of making the cranberry sauce and taking pictures of it when the sun was still out, I made a last minute decision to go hiking with some friends in the Middlesex Fells since it was probably going to be one of the last nice days of 2014.  While the pics above rather flat and uninteresting, it was worth it to spend time with good friends and to get this shot:

Next:  Jeni's Crème Sans Lait (Dairy-Free Ice Cream)
Previously:  Sriracha Popcorn
Last Year:  My Mom's Pi Jiu Ya (Beer Braised Duck)
Two Years Ago:  Pretzel Ice Cream Pie with Homemade Magic Shell
Fives Years Ago:  Nanaimo Bars

Pecan Topped Cranberry Cake

I still had a ton of cranberries left from cranberry picking so I made this beautiful cake from The Kitchn.

 
Pecan Topped Cranberry Cake (from The Kitchn)
makes one 9x13-inch or one 10-inch springform cake

For the cake

3 eggs
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter, slightly softened and cut into chunks
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups flour (I substituted in 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour)
2 1/2 cups cranberries (1 bag)

For the pecan topping

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup pecans, toasted

Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9x13 pan or a 10" springform pan. (I cut up the butter and transferred them to the pan to soften on top of the oven range.)

Beat eggs and sugar together for at least 5 minutes — probably as long as 7 or 8 minutes — the egg and sugar mixture should double in volume and turn pale yellow, leaving ribbons on top of the batter when you lift the beaters.

Add the butter and flavorings and beat for 2 more minutes. Stir in flour and fold in cranberries. Pour into greased pan.

To make the pecan topping, heat the butter in a pan over medium-high heat. Add the sugar and stir.

Add the toasted pecans and cook for several minutes, stirring, until the butter and sugar mixture is shiny and smooth and the nuts smell toasted. Spread over the cake batter.

 
Bake 45-50 minutes for a 9x13, or a little over an hour for the springform. You may need to tent the cake with foil in the last 15 minutes or so to keep the top from browning.

 

Cool completely before serving.

Next time I'd probably make more of the pecan topping since that was my favorite part of the cake, and there was barely enough to cover the top of the cake.  This cake is on the heavier side, almost like a pound cake.  I stored it covered at room temperature for 5 days, and it was still moist and yummy on the last day.

Cranberry Royale Sorbet

Last week I got to go on a Cranberry Farm Picking Experience with Colonial Lantern Tours.  I've gone apple picking and strawberry picking before, but this was the first time I've ever gone cranberry picking.  No, we didn't get to put on those rubber overalls and wade in a cranberry bog, but we did get to see how a flooded cranberry bog is harvested and also how cranberries are dry harvested.  Lastly, we got to hand pick our own cranberries!  Fun fact:  only 10% of cranberries are dry harvested, and only the dry harvested cranberries will be sold fresh in stores.  The other 90% are wet harvested and will go into cranberry products like cranberry sauce and cranberry juice.

 
Even before I went on the tour, I started looking up cranberry recipes to try.  The ones that caught my eye were a bittersweet cranberry brownie and a pecan topped cranberry cake.  Then my friend Ellen suggested that I make Jeni's Cranberry Royale Sorbet.  And boy, am I glad she did. 

Cranberry Royale Sorbet from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home
makes about 1 quart

2 grapefruits (you need enough to get 3/4 cup of juice; I needed 1 1/2 large grapefruits)
One 12-ounce bag cranberries (fresh or frozen)
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons water
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 1/2 cups sugar

 
Using a vegetable peeler, remove 3 large strips of zest from 1 of the grapefruits. Halve the grapefruits and squeeze 3/4 cup juice.

 

Combine the grapefruit juice, zest, cranberries, water, corn syrup, and sugar in a 4-quart saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil just until the cranberries begin to pop open, about 5 minutes. (My cranberries started to pop before it was anywhere close to boiling, so I just put a splatter screen on top of the saucepan and continued to heat the pan.) Remove from the heat and let cool.

 

Remove the grapefruit zest. If desired, puree the cranberry mixtures in batches, or leave unpureed for a chunkier sorbet.

 

Chill the mixtue and then freeze in an ice cream maker. Spin just until the consistency of very softly whipped cream.

 

Pack the sorbet into a storage container, press a sheet of parchment directly against the surface, and seal with an airtight lid. Freeze in the coldest part of your freezer until firm, at least 4 hours.

  

On the following page in her book, there's a gorgeous picture of an Oslo Ambrosia sundae, which consists of a meringue topped with raspberry lingonberry sauce, a scoop of the Cranberry Royale, and topped with cardamon scented whipped cream.  I just knew I had to try to make this sundae, if only because it looked so pretty.  Instead of making a raspberry lingonberry sauce, though, I just saved a few tablespoons of the sorbet base before it was frozen and added a spoonful of raspberry preserves.

 

I also used coconut whipped cream instead of dairy whipped cream and should be posting that recipe soon.  (Edited to add:  here's the post!)

 

Apple-Pear-Cranberry Crisp

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! What are you thankful for this year? Me, I'm thankful that I got to travel to a lot of different countries (Czech Republic, Bolivia, Aruba, Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Egypt!), for new friends that I've made, and that my brother got married to a wonderful girl!

I almost always staying in Boston for Thanksgiving since my home in Ohio is really too far away to drive to and too expensive to fly to for such a short break. But it's become tradition to celebrate with other Thanksgiving "orphans", and this year I went over to Oeimae, Yumi (thanks for the invite!), and Judy's apartment in Brookline for yet another potluck. This time, I wanted to use up the two pears and two apples I had gotten in my Boston Organics delivery, so I decided to make a apple-pear crisp. But just those 4 fruits didn't seem to be enough for the 9"x13" pan, so I bought a bag of fresh cranberries to add to the mix for some color and tartness.

Apple-Pear-Cranberry Crisp
makes 24 servings

2 apples, peeled, cored, and sliced (I used Fuji apples)
2 pears, peeled, cored, and sliced (I used one Bosc and one Concord pear)
1 bag fresh cranberries
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 dash nutmeg
1 1/2 cups flour and 1 tablespoon flour, divided
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups oats
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cups butter, cut into pieces

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Toss the apple and pear slices with the cinnamon, nutmeg, and 1 tablespoon flour. Add the cranberries and sugar. Toss to mix. Place in a 9"x13" baking dish.

In a large bowl, add the remaining ingredients and cut the butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles a coarse meal. You can also use a food processor to do this, but I enjoy doing it with my hands.

Spread the topping evenly over the fruit. Bake for 45 minutes. Serve with vanilla ice cream!

That last part of the recipe is key. Even though there's a whole cup of sugar in the fruit filling, the fresh cranberries are really quite tart. Eating this crisp with ice cream mellows out the fruit so that the sum is much greater than its parts.

This recipe can be adapted to other fruits as well. You can omit the cranberries and use more of the apples or pears. A peach or cherry crisp is another possibility, but you'd have to adjust the amount of sugar since those fruits are already quite sweet.