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Cranberry Bakewell Mini Tarts

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Cranberry Bakewell Mini Tarts
Christmas in London! Such a brilliant notion. Those powder-dusted cobbled lane pics in my Instagram feed seduced me. Granted, we have just a week to plan, yet our passports are current, we know where we want to go, what we want to do – and we’re both quite experienced travelers. All we really need is a London hotel and a cheap, last minute flight. But, alas, there’s the rub – nothing less than $1800 per person, even with a layover. Sigh, Christmas in London – again, not this year.

I console myself, as I decorate the tree, with these British-inspired confections – bite-sized Cranberry Bakewell Tarts. At least my taste buds can travel there.


Cranberry Bakewell Mini Tarts

  • Servings: 16 Mini Tarts
  • Print

Ingredients

    Shortbread Crust
  • 6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
  • 2 Tablespoons sugar
  • ¼ teaspoon vanilla
  • ¾ cup flour
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
    • Frangipane (Almond Crème)
  • 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
  • 6 Tablespoons confectioner’s sugar
  • 1 egg
  • ¾ cup almond flour
  • 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
  • 3 Tablespoons smooth cranberry sauce or cranberry jelly
    • Glaze
  • 1/3 cup confectioner’s sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon water
  • 16 sliced almonds, toasted

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 16 mini muffin cups. Make crust by beating together 6 Tablespoons butter and sugar. Add vanilla, flour and salt and combine until fully blended. Divide dough into 16 equal pieces, pressing dough along bottom and up sides of each muffin cup. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until just beginning to brown. If crust rises too much after baking, gently press back down into cups.
  2. While crusts are baking, make frangipane by whisking together 4 Tablespoons butter, confectioner’s sugar, egg, almond flour and cornstarch. Spoon frangipane into a piping bag with a ¼ to ½” tip.
  3. Dollop about ½ teaspoon of cranberry sauce in the bottom of each cup. Pipe frangipane over cranberry sauce, covering sauce completely. Bake tarts for an additional 20-25 minutes until tops are puffed and slightly golden brown. Cool completely
  4. To make glaze, mix 1/3 cup confectioner’s sugar with water. Drizzle over cooled tarts. Garnish each with a sliced almond.

Cranberry Bakewell Tartlets

Garnish

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key_lime_pie 2

Never garnish edibles with the inedible.

After much delay, the tart preview is scheduled for next week – exact date to be determined. I’m guardedly optimistic about the outcome. I’m including lemon, key lime, and coconut cream. I’m also presenting the apricot-almond tart. It’s off the mark from what was requested, but it remains my particular favorite. I intended to present bare bones, unadorned tartlets so the tasting could focus solely on flavor. Let the flavor come first and leave the presentation for later. But, that axiom, “you taste with your eyes first” keeps rolling around in my head. Flavor is paramount, but just as a little Lancôme ensures they stick around to discover your winning personality, a little culinary zhushing can’t hurt either. Why not make the book AND the cover praise-worthy?

The research begins. An image search for ‘Key Lime Tart” resulted in pages of whipped-cream and meringue topped sweets garishly garnished with a slice of fresh lime, zest and all. If a slice of pie was served to me so garnished, my reaction would involve yanking the bitter fiend from its whipped cream lair and tossing it to the side of the plate. What’s appealing about that?

lg_key_lime_pie

Finally, I discovered this Fauchon lemon tart adorned simply with a thin square of mango gelée. Perfection.

Fauchon

Homework for this weekend: fruit gelée and other garnishes, cranberry tart, and faster assembly.