Cranberry Curd Shortbread Tart
I was going to attend a holiday gathering with friends and volunteered to bring the dessert as I normally do. However, normally I go to Sugar (Cubed)3 Cakes and pick up cupcakes or cookies. This time I was determined to make the dessert myself. While dessert is rarely healthy this time that was not my goal.
My goal was to get in the kitchen and make a passable dish that I wasn’t embarrassed to share. I determined that I should do a practice run. The Saturday before the gathering with my friends my parents were coming to my house. I decided to serve them lunch with the tart for dessert. I went all out and gave them hot dogs, overcooked in my new air fryer. My mom brought macaroni salad.
Cranberry Curd Shortbread Tart
I decided to make the Cranberry Curd Shortbread Tart from The Farmer’s Daughter website. I’ll admit the photo is what drew me to the dessert. It is so beautiful.
I even wanted to make the sugared greens, cranberries, and meringues but in the end, I served it with whipped cream. Easier to prepare and I didn’t know who to do the others and already had enough learning to undertake for the shortbread and cranberry curd.
The first attempt was moderately successful.
Making The Shortbread
Making the shortbread as described in the recipe sounded a lot like making homemade pie crust. I remembered from my (much) younger days that the butter could be broken into small pieces with a fork so I began.
After working and working, I wasn’t getting the consistency described in the recipe. I decided to try my hand mixer. That worked well overall but scattered some of the ingredients far and wide as I didn’t have a proper mixing bowl. Patting the mixture into the tart pan was challenging. I’ve never done anything like that before.
I couldn’t get an even thickness of dough up the sides and turning the corner to the bottom of the tart pan. However, I decided that it would do and proceeded to bake the shortbread.
Preparation of Cranberry Curd
I immediately began the preparation of the cranberry curd. I didn’t know what a curd was but I’d always been curious after seeing jars of lemon curd amongst the jams and jellies at the market. This page contains a description of what a curd is. It turns out I should have waited a while before preparing the curd as the shortbread not only had to cook but cool before putting the curd into the shell.
I made a mental note for my next attempt to allow time between the shell and the curd preparations. The preparation of the cranberries was fun. The fresh cranberries cooked in a bit of water would make a popping sound which was unexpected but a bit fun. Once the cranberries were popped open and softened the recipe indicated they should be put in a high-speed mixer and then put through a sieve to ensure there is no skin or seeds only pure fruit.
However, I don’t have a high-speed mixer but I do have an immersion blender which has been lightly used up to this point in its life. Honestly, I don’t remember ever using it but surely…?
Anyway, I used the immersion blender. It worked but what a mess it made – or I guess I should say I made. The fruit was flung to the wall and backsplash next to the stove. I put the blended fruit into my sieve-or it is a mesh strainer but that’s the same thing, right?
However, the fruit did not want to pass through. I had to massage it through the mesh. I felt uneasy but decided to proceed with the recipe which went easily. The amount of curd was perfect for the shell. I set the tart in the refrigerator for cooling overnight.
Lunch With Parents
On Saturday just before noon, my parents arrived for lunch. After hot dogs and macaroni salad, I got out the tart. Mom sliced and served us each a piece. So, first bite…
Bleh. Too sweet. I grew up with barely sweetened tart fruits. Just take the edge off the tartness level of the cranberry curd. This level of sweetness was rather like taking a spoonful of sugar directly. After discussing with my parents we agreed that cutting the sugar between 33 and 50% would be the best target. Mom and I continued with a few more bites but Dad pushed his tart away immediately.
The second attempt was a big success.
My only challenge was that I did not have the called-for-five eggs. While I had three egg cartons in the refrigerator they all had only one egg each except one carton contained two. Fortunately, I was able to use my recipe app Paprika and scale the recipe to get the proportions correct for the four eggs instead of five. While a 1/5th reduction of 1/4 cup of butter is odd it is roughly doable (it’s just over 3/16th of a cup).
My friends assured me the tart was delicious and a perfect finish to a dinner of lobster macaroni and cheese, salad, and Julia Child’s baked tomato. I was so happy that it turned out and I credit that practice run in helping me get there.
I made the tort one more time for our family Christmas Eve celebration. However, as usual, most of us ate too much and were too full to have a piece of tart so I think maybe my sister had a piece but I do not remember exactly.
I am feeling on top of the world after this success.
Check out why I started this blog and read “Why I Hate Cooking.”