Cranberry Marzipan Tarts

Merry Christmas Eve! Zingy cranberry curd on a rich layer of marzipan, ready to make you feel festive. 241: Cranberry Marzipan Tarts

Christmas music on in the background, a pile of pomegranate seeds, and three bright red tartlets waiting to be decorated. All I was missing was snow drifting past the window! The rain helped with the ambiance a little, but you know, not the same.

Whenever I pull out my mini springform pans, Nate says: more tarts?? I just can’t resist. First of all, sweet crust is basically shortbread which is my all-time favorite. Yum.

Secondly, an empty tart shell is the perfect blank slate for whatever baking mood I’m in, or whatever seasonal fruit is piling up on my kitchen counter.

Look at the color! *happy dance*

I prepped the curd and tart dough the night before to take as much advantage of the daylight for assembling and decorating. Winter solstice baking problems.

Get excited for more daylight!! I miss long walks after work and dinner picnics in parks. Basically spring and summer. Bring it on.

Until then, we’ve got bright fruit like cranberries and citrus to keep us going. They’re so acidic, you need the mountain of sugar to mellow them out a bit.

Christmas in a pot.

The recipe suggested immersion blending the cranberry mixture to get a stronger color: 10/10 would recommend! I’d like to think it helps with the flavor as well – you’re sieving out less of the fruit.

Same process as with a pastry cream or custard:

Heat up a liquid: fruit juice or milk with vanilla
Temper beaten eggs by pouring it in little by little: the natural pectin in the fruit takes the place of the cornstarch I use to thicken pastry cream
Add butter: adding fat = richer flavor and creamier consistency
Pour it all back into the pan and cook til pectin or cornstarch activates, thickening it into a luscious pudding

Voila!

Post-refrigerator nap, blinking in the sunlight.

The line-up: leftover marzipan from the annual rainbow cookie bake, trusty mini springform pans, a batch of sweet tart shell crust (recipe here!), and zingy cranberry curd.

One batch fits all three mini pans with a tiny bit leftover.

I put the marzipan in post-bake and realized belatedly it just looks like raw pastry. Welp. Good thing it tastes 100x better.

Ta-daa! I truly think the curd was set enough that you don’t need to bake it again (the recipe suggests a final bake to fully set it.)

I found this pomegranate decorating idea on Instagram but can’t for the life of me remember where. Maybe the algorithm is listening and will now pop it up on your feed today. Sorry and you’re welcome!