xmas week 2024 - raspberry and cranberry curd tart

xmas week 2024 - raspberry and cranberry curd tart

• 10 Dec 2024

Welcome to the final day of Xmas week 2024. This was going to be my version of David Tanis's famous cranberry tart, until frozen cranberries disappeared from the freezer section at the supermarket. Undaunted I made a raspberry curd tart to share with you but the filling failed to set. The tart was a photographic disaster but very tasty, so back to the drawing board I went. 

I had 50g of frozen cranberries stashed in my freezer and a pack of frozen raspberries so I made a batch of cranberry raspberry curd. It certainly set better than the raspberry curd did, but I added some cornflour to the curd to ensure the filling set sufficiently when baked so I could cut a clean slice. With only a few cranberries available, I could only make a small amount of curd so I made a very small tart. Please refer to the original recipe for quantities sufficient to make a 10 inch tart. 

Here's the recipe for you which makes a 16.5 cm x 2.5 cm tart. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Raspberry and cranberry curd tart

Almond shortcrust pastry
¼ cup icing sugar
35g almond meal
200g plain flour
Pinch salt
110g cold unsalted butter, diced
1 egg, lightly beaten
Cold water

Cran-raspberry curd
50g frozen cranberries/120g raspberries
90g caster sugar
½ orange peeled (coloured part only) and juiced to yield ¼ cup of juice

1 egg plus 1 egg yolk

pinch salt

55g room temperature unsalted butter 

2 tsp cornflour (starch) mixed with 2 tsp orange juice

To serve (optional)

200 mls cream whipped with 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste

1 punnet of raspberries

Pastry
To make the pastry, combine all the dry ingredients in a food processor, and whiz for a few seconds until well combined and free of lumps. Add the cold butter and whiz until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg and sufficient cold water and whiz until a soft dough just starts to form around the blade. 

Remove the dough from the food processor and gather the pastry into a ball; flatten slightly before wrapping in plastic and placing in the fridge. You’ll only need about half of the pastry dough to make a 16.5cm tart. The pastry freezes well so just wrap the remaining pastry in plastic wrap and store in the freezer.

Refrigerate the pastry for an hour and then roll out thinly - 4mm thick. Line a greased 17 cm flan tin with the pastry then return to the fridge for another 30 minutes.

To blind bake, preheat the oven to 200°C, conventional. Cover the dough with a piece of aluminium foil (dull side down), tucking it snugly into the corner of the tin. Fill the lined tin with rice or baking beads. Place in the oven, then reduce the heat to 170°C and bake for 40 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 5–10 minutes so the base crust is a biscuity brown colour. Cool on a wire rack.

Raspberry and cranberry curd

Put the cranberries, sugar, orange juice and peel in a saucepan over medium heat. Simmer for about 7 minutes before adding the raspberries. Cook until the  cranberries have popped and softened, about 10 minutes. Purée the cooked cranberry and orange mixture with an immersion blender or in a food processor or blender until smooth then press through a fine-mesh sieve. 

Put the egg and the yolk into a microwave safe bowl and beat lightly. Slowly whisk the warm cranberry liquid into the eggs to temper. Add the salt then cook in the microwave on medium for 5 or 6 minutes stirring thoroughly every minute until thickened and the curd measures 82°C on an instant read thermometer. 

Pass the curd though a fine sieve into a bowl to remove any eggy bits, then whisk the butter into the warm liquid. If using immediately, let cool to room temperature. If working ahead, cool to room temperature, cover with plastic wrap (press wrap against curd) and refrigerate. 

Just before pouring the curd into the pastry shell, thoroughly stir in the cornflour mixture. This will help the curd to set. Pour the cooled cranberry curd into the prebaked tart shell and smooth the top with a spatula. Bake at 180°C conventional for 20 minutes to set the curd. The curd will look opaque but will not be completely set in the middle. Cool completely on a wire rack then store in an airtight container in the fridge. 

Just before serving dollop whipped cream in the centre of the tart or pipe the whipped cream around the edges and decorate with the fresh raspberries.

Undecorated, the tart will keep for 2 days covered in an airtight container the fridge.

How was it? The tart was absolutely delicious and well worth the hype.

I hope you enjoyed Xmas week 2024. 

See you all again next year.

Bye for now,

Jillian