You'll need a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom for this recipe.

The amount of meringue isn't as much what you would typically do for a towering lemon meringue pie, but it's plenty for piping decoratively on the top (and enough to cover the whole top with dots like you see pictured if you wanted to do that). The meringue is totally optional, but because the tart leaves you with extra egg whites from the curd, it's easy to go that extra step and add the meringue. The tart crust can be made and baked up to two days ahead, and the curd can be cooked and chilled up to a week in advance, you can then assemble and bake the tart on the day (or day before) you want to eat it. The cranberry curd itself is a riff on one I've been making for years that's rounded out with a generous splash of vanilla, some freshly squeezed orange juice from the orange you just zested, and an optional splash of any orange liqueur you like (but don't bother going out to buy Grand Marnier or Dry Curacao just for this). This one has a bit of orange zest and powdered sugar to keep it tender. This cranberry curd tart uses a press-in shortbread crust inspired by one Alice Medrich uses in everything. Which, honestly, is a totally unnecessary bit of showing off and you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to. It sits on a super-easy press-in shortbread crust that doesn’t need any resting time, making this even easier than most pies.Īnd, because the curd leaves a couple of egg whites behind, I like to top it with a bit of Italian meringue that I hit with a blow torch. It comes together in a few minutes on the stove, and it doesn’t even require you to set up a double boiler.Īnd honestly, the curd itself is worthy of licking off the spatula. The curd itself is a deep-red garnet color, with a silky smooth texture and the tart cranberry flavor gets rounded out with vanilla and orange (and not a small amount of butter and sugar and eggs). This cranberry curd tart is the cold-weather dessert you didn’t know you needed. But it’s not the only way to celebrate fall and winter. Not that there’s anything wrong with a classic apple pie. Which is a shame, because when strategically deployed, cranberry desserts not only bring a welcome burst of color, they bring a lovely puckery acidity to punctuate a big meal.(Sort of the way this lemon ginger tart does.) They’re often relegated to a sad cylinder of canned cranberry sauce at the edge of the Thanksgiving table, an afterthought to the apples and pumpkins taking up the dessert space. Cranberries are the under-appreciated fruit of fall and winter.

Cranberry curd tart