Cooks Illustrated Cranberry Tart Food

CRANBERRY CURD TART

Steps:

• Make the crust: Heat oven to 325 degrees. Put hazelnuts on a baking sheet and roast for 10 to 15 minutes, until skins darken and crack. Put roasted nuts in a clean towel and rub off skins. Discard skins and let nuts cool.
• In a food processor, grind nuts with half the rice flour until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Add remaining rice flour and salt and pulse briefly.
• Cream sugar and butter in a mixing bowl with a wooden spoon for a minute or two until pale and thick. Add nut mixture and combine until dough comes together. If it seems crumbly, add 1 to 2 tablespoons softened butter or a little cold water.
• Press dough evenly into a 10-inch tart pan; use half the dough for the sides and half for the bottom. Prick bottom with a fork and freeze for 30 minutes (or several days if desired).
• Heat oven to 350 degrees. Bake chilled tart shell about 15 minutes until lightly brown. Cool.
• While the crust bakes and cools, make the cranberry curd: Put cranberries, sugar and orange juice and peel in a saucepan over medium heat. Simmer until cranberries have popped and softened, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a food mill or medium mesh sieve and press cooking liquid and solids into a bowl. (Alternatively, for the most vibrant color, purée the cooked cranberry and orange mixture with an immersion blender or in a food processor or blender. Press through a fine-mesh sieve.) Whisk the butter into the warm liquid.
• Put eggs and egg yolks into a bowl and beat lightly. Slowly whisk a cup of warm cranberry liquid into the eggs to temper, then combine both and whisk together. Wipe out pot if necessary, return liquid to pot and cook over low heat until nearly bubbling and thickened, about 10 minutes. 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. (Curd may be cooked up to 1 day ahead.)
• Pour cooled cranberry curd into the cooled prebaked tart shell and smooth top with a spatula. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes to set curd. Cool on a rack. Store at room temperature for up to 2 days.

PECAN CRANBERRY TART

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Lightly toast pecans in a shallow baking pan in middle of oven until fragrant but not darker, about 5 minutes, then cool. Leave oven on.
• Cook 1/2 cup sugar in a dry 2-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, undisturbed, until it begins to melt. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally with a fork (to help sugar melt evenly), until sugar is melted into a deep golden caramel. Tilt pan and carefully add corn syrup (caramel will harden and steam vigorously). Cook over moderately low heat, stirring, until caramel is dissolved.
• Remove pan from heat and add butter, stirring until melted, then cool caramel until it stops bubbling. Whisk together eggs, salt, vanilla, and remaining 1/4 cup sugar, then add caramel in a stream, whisking constantly. 3Spread pecans and cranberries evenly in tart shell and pour caramel over them, tapping pecans and cranberries down to coat thoroughly. Bake tart in middle of oven until filling is set, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool completely in pan on a rack before removing rim of pan.