People! There is still time! To make this amazing Cranberry Curd Tart by David Tanis! So beautiful, so delicious and (cross my heart, please don’t die and under no circumstances stick a needle in my eye), not complicated at all. A buttery and crunchy hazelnut crust with a smooth, not too sweet cranberry filling that is sure to be a showstopper on your Thanksgiving table. Totally worth the time it takes to make it (don’t worry, it’s fairly hands off!), even if your Thanksgiving is as microscopic as ours is going to be. In fact, all the more for you, so in that sense it’s kind of a best case scenario!
Sorry, just trying to find a silver lining here… Because there always is one, for sure!
xoxo Donata
Ingredients
FOR THE HAZELNUT CRUST:
1 ¼ cups (180 g) raw hazelnuts
1 cup (125 g) rice flour (if there are no gluten issues, you can substitute all purpose flour)
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup (112 g) sugar
6 tablespoons (100 g) softened butter, more as necessary
FOR THE CRANBERRY CURD:
12 ounces (340 g) cranberries
1 cup (225 g) sugar
Peel (orange part only) and juice of 1 orange (about 1/2 cup)
4 ounces (113 g) softened butter (1 stick)
2 eggs plus 2 egg yolks
Preparation
Make the crust: Heat oven to 325 F (160 C). 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. (g&b note: Most of the skins did not come off mine, so just worked with them as is. Turned out totally fine and delicious, so don’t stress!)
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 F (180 C). 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 F (180 C) for 10 minutes to set curd. Cool on a rack. Store at room temperature for up to 2 days.
