Give cranberries a starring role in your holiday celebration with this stunning dessert: an elegant tart filled with luscious cranberry curd!

A few years ago, I won a national food blogger recipe contest with this recipe for Cranberry Lime Curd. I was pretty chuffed about it, in part because the contest came with a generous cash prize, but also because cranberries are one of my favorite fruits to cook with. They are a beautiful berry, native to our continent, and high in pectin — which makes cranberries a preserver’s dream.

The state next to mine, Wisconsin, is one of the biggest cranberry-growing states in the nation so I am able to find local cranberries at my farmer’s market in the fall. I always stock up before the market ends for the year – around late October – because cranberries freeze like a dream. And that way, I will have cranberries to bake and preserve with all winter long.

Of course, cranberries make an appearance at my Thanksgiving celebration in the form of homemade cranberry relish. But I think they deserve a spot on the dessert table as well. That’s why I came up with this elegant cranberry curd tart. It’s the same sweet-tart velvety cranbery curd that I made before, but now encased in a flaky, buttery tart shell. It’s heavenly.

When it comes to Thanksgiving desserts, I love pumpkin, apple and even pecan pie as much as the next girl. But looks-wise, none of them can compete with the stunning rosy-red color of this cranberry curd tart and when you garnish it with these sugared cranberries? Forget about it! The cranberry curd tart wins all the Thanksgiving dessert beauty contests.

I have to confess, the first time I made this tart, I was not happy with the results. I underbaked the tart shell so it wasn’t as crispy as I wanted it to be. And the amount of curd wasn’t quite enough to fill the shell. It wasn’t diasastrous but it wasn’t perfect either. 

So, I made the tart again adjusting the recipe for the tart dough and increasing the quantity of cranberry curd. (The real hero here is my husband who ate the first tart and then gamely ate the second tart as well. That guy!) So, as someone who has now made this tart multiple times, I can tell you that it is a bit of a project. On the other hand, it’s no more work than making a tarte au citron, and we’ve seen the contestants on The Great British Baking Show make that in only a few hours, right?

However, the good news is that the steps can be broken down into different parts and prepared in advance. So, you can make and refrigerate the tart dough several days before you plan to serve the finished tart. Likewise, you can make the cranberry curd as much as a day or two in advance and store it in the refrigerator. If you were serving the tart in the evening, you could roll out, chill and blind-bake the tart shell that morning. Then, all that is left is to fill the tart and bake it for just a few minutes to set the curd.

I mentioned the sugared cranberries that I used to garnish the tart. That’s a fun project as well! It’s quite simple: soak cranberries in a simple syrup for several hours and then roll them in sugar. If you need more detaield instructions, I followed this recipe. You can also garnish the tart with pomegranate seeds, which look beautiful, or some strips of orange zest. Be creative!

I hope that you find an occasion to make my cranberry curd tart this holiday season. If so, please let me know how it turned out!

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Cranberry Curd Tart

Ingredients

Cranberry Curd
• 4 cups (16 oz) cranberries
• 1 cup water
• Zest and juice of two small oranges (or try blood oranges)
• 1 cup sugar
• 6 egg yolks
• 6 TB (3 oz.) butter
Tart Dough
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 8 TB (4 oz.) butter, cold
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 TB cream
• 2 TB water

Instructions

1. To make the cranberry curd, combine cranberries, water and orange juice and zest in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook until the cranberries have broken down, about ten minutes.
2. Pour the cranberries into a fine-mesh sieve set over a large bowl and stir with a spatula until all that is left in the sieve is the skins and seeds and you have a cranberry puree in the bowl.
3. In a medium saucepan, combine the egg yolks and sugar and whisk until lightened in color.
4. Add the cranberry puree and heat over medium or medium-low heat, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon, about ten minutes. (Do not allow the mixture to boil.)
5. Remove from heat and pour the curd into a fine-mesh strainer set over a bowl. Use a spatula to gently push the curd through the sieve leaving behind any pieces of cooked egg.
6. Stir in the softened butter and continue to stir until the butter has melted.
7. Allow to cool or refrigerate if making in advance.
8. Make the tart dough: Combine the flour, sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times to mix. Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
9. Beat the egg, cream and water together in a small bowl. Add to the food processor. Pulse several times until combined. Remove the dough to a bowl or a well-floured board.
10. Knead the dough until it forms a ball and flatten into a disc. Place the dough in the refrigerator to relax for at least an hour and preferably several hours or overnight.
11. If your dough was chilled for longer than an hour, remove from the refrigerator and allow to soften for ten minutes before rolling it out.
12. Preheat the oven to 375 and liberally dust a pastry board or mat and your rolling pin with flour.
13. Roll the dough out, rotating it and turning it frequently and adding more flour as necessary to keep it from sticking, until it is the size of your tart pan and between ¼ and ⅛ of an inch thick.
14. Carefully center the tart dough in the pan and press it into the bottom and sides. Trim or fold over any excess dough around the edges, poke it several times with the tines of a fork to prevent shrinkage, and place the tart pan in the refrigerator or freezer to chill for at least fifteen minutes and up to one hour.
15. Blind-bake the crust by covering it with foil and filling the tart pan with pie weights. Bake for thirty minutes.
16. Remove weights and foil and bake for an additional ten minutes. Remove tart shell from oven and allow to cool completely on a wire rack. Turn heat down to 350.
17. Fill tart shell with cranberry curd, smoothing the top with an offset spatula, and bake for ten minutes just to set the curd.
18. Garnish and serve!

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