Cranberry Orange Curd Food

CRANBERRY-ORANGE CURD TART

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom.
• Combine flour, sugar, ginger, and salt for crust in a small bowl. Mix in melted butter, vanilla extract, and almond extract until mixture is combined and comes together in a thick dough.
• Press dough evenly into the bottom and up the sides of the prepared tart pan. Place the tart pan on a large baking sheet.
• Bake in the preheated oven until golden, 20 to 25 minutes.
• Beat egg yolks and egg together in a large bowl with an electric mixer. Set aside.
• Combine cranberries and sugar in a large saucepan. Cook over medium heat until cranberries pop and sugar is dissolved, 8 to 10 minutes. Pour mixture into a blender. Add orange juice, orange zest, vanilla extract, and salt. Leave the lid vent open on the blender; do not seal without having a way to steam to vent, and cover the lid with a kitchen towel.
• Blend on low speed until mixture is smooth and thoroughly pureed. Pour the warm mixture gradually into the eggs, whisking constantly.
• Pour curd back into the saucepan and cook over low heat until mixture is thickened, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, until thoroughly combined, ensuring each piece of butter has thoroughly melted before adding the next. Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve. Discard solids. Pour strained curd into the prepared crust.
• Bake in the preheated oven until curd is set around the edges and jiggles slightly in the center, 20 to 25 minutes. Allow to cool to room temperature before removing from the tart pan, 30 minutes to 1 hour.

CRANBERRY-ORANGE CURD

Steps:

• Pour orange juice into a measuring cup and add enough water to make 3/4 cup liquid. Pour into a medium saucepan.
• Add orange zest, cranberries, and sugar and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook, stirring occasionally, until cranberries have burst, 8 to 10 minutes.
• Pour cranberry mixture into a food processor or blender; blend until smooth, 10 to 20 seconds. Reserve 1/3 cup and return remaining cranberry mixture to saucepan over low heat.
• Whisk egg yolks together in a small bowl. Slowly add reserved cranberry mixture, whisking constantly. Slowly whisk egg-cranberry mixture back into the saucepan and continue whisking for 5 minutes, or until mixture is thickened and the curd coats the back of a metal spoon. Add butter and whisk until melted and fully incorporated.
• Pour into a sterile jar and allow to cool. Curd keeps in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

GINGERBREAD JARS WITH CRANBERRY CURD

Steps:

• Make the gingerbread: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8-by-8-inch cake pan with a little softened butter and line with parchment paper, letting any excess hang over the edges of the pan.
• Place the orange juice and raisins in a measuring cup and set aside to soak. In a mixing bowl add the melted butter, molasses and sour cream, whisking until well combined. Add 1 2/3 cups of flour, the ginger, baking soday, cinnamon, cloves and salt and whisk together until combined. Drain the raisins, then add them to the batter along with the remaining 1 cup of flour and the crystallized ginger. Combine with a silicone spatula, then pour into the prepared pan and bake until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Remove the cake from the oven and set aside to cool completely before cutting the cake into 1-inch cubes.
• While the cake bakes, make the cranberry curd: Into a saucepan set over medium heat, add the sugar, cranberry juice and salt and whisk until smooth. Once the sugar is dissolved, whisk in the egg yolks, then add the butter. Reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring constantly, until the cranberry curd thickens and reaches 170 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer. Remove from the heat and transfer the curd to a bowl to cool.
• To assemble: Place a few pieces of the gingerbread cubes in a small jar, add 2 tablespoons of the cranberry curd on top of the gingerbread and top with whipped cream.

ORANGE CURD

Steps:

• Remove the zest from the oranges with a vegetable peeler, being careful to avoid the white pith. Put the zest in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Add the sugar and pulse until the zest is very finely minced.
• Cream the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add the sugar/orange zest mixture and mix until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, then add the orange juice and salt. Mix until combined.
• Pour the mixture into a 2-quart saucepan and cook over low heat until thickened, about 10 minutes, stirring constantly. The orange curd will be ready when it coats a spoon, and it will register about 175 degrees F on a candy thermometer. Be careful not to overcook, or it will curdle. Remove from the heat and let cool or refrigerate.
• Place the orange curd in a bowl and decoratively arrange the strawberries on a serving platter around the bowl.

CRANBERRY CURD

Steps:

• Put the cranberries and water in a saucepan, cover, and cook on low heat until tender and popped.
• Pass cranberries through a food mill of press through a sieve and put the puree back in a saucepan.
• Add the butter and sugar, melting gently.
• Beat the eggs, then strain them into the fruit.
• Stir constantly over medium heat until thickened, being careful not to curdle the mixture (it should coat the back of a spoon when thickened).
• Let cool, then pour into 5 1/2 pint jars (or any other container).

CRANBERRY CURD TARTLETS

Steps:

• Place cranberries, water, and orange juice in a saucepan, cover, and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until cranberries burst, about 35 minutes. Press through a fine sieve, scraping back of sieve to get all the pulp (you should have about 1 3/4 cups), and discard solids. Cook pulp in pan with butter, sugar, and salt over medium heat, stirring, until butter is melted and sugar is dissolved, about 7 minutes.
• Whisk together egg yolks and egg in a medium bowl, then whisk in cranberry mixture, 1 tablespoon at a time. Return mixture to pan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is thickened and coats the back of a wooden spoon, about 8 minutes. Pass through sieve into a bowl (you should have about 3 cups) and press plastic wrap directly on surface of curd to cover. Refrigerate until cold, about 30 minutes. To serve, let guests assemble their own tartlets, or spoon curd into pastry cups and top with whipped cream.

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.