Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Cranberry Crackle Tart : TWD

Our second bake from "Baking Chez Moi" by Dorie Greenspan, at Tuesdays With Dorie (TWD). A lovely tart, with a buttery crust, spread with a layer of jam, and topped with egg white meringue which is mixed with fresh cranberries. Unfortunately, fresh cranberries are not easily available over here in Malaysia, and I could not find any frozen ones too, so I've used dried cranberries.


 According to Dorie, when the tart is done baking, the top will be light beige and most probably cracked here and there. Well, there's some cracks here and there on my tart, mostly at the sides, but the meringue bakes up with a darker shade of beige, I would prefer if it is a little lighter!



The recipe has given an option to make the crust using either the Sweet Tart Dough or Galette Dough, and I have chosen the latter, as it has lesser sugar, lesser butter and no eggs. The crust is made in the food processor, roll out to fill the pie pan, freeze for at least 30 minutes, and bake as instructed in the recipe. I have used a tablespoon less of the water calls for in the recipe, as our weather here is hot and humid, and I find that I tend to use less water than stated in most recipes, sometimes not at all, when I'm making dough crust for pies and tarts. When the crust is at room temperature, spread some chunky jam, of which I have used lingonberry preserves. I've used more preserves to cover the crust base, more than the recipe calls for. Make the meringue by beating the egg whites with some sugar, which I've reduced slightly. Fresh cranberries are then added in. I've used dried cranberries. (soaked in some hot water until they plumped up, about 45 minutes, drain and left them in the sieve for about an hour, to make sure they are dry). Spread the meringue over the jam, making swirls if desired, and bake for an hour until the meringue is light beige.



The meringue was already starting to brown at the 20 minutes time of baking, so I've tented the top with foil, reduce the temperature by 10 degrees,  and continue baking till done. I've added 10 minutes to the baking time.



The meringue bakes up crispy nice. Using dried cranberries works out great, though I think that with fresh cranberries would be even better! And I like the buttery crust, with the balance of the dough scrapes, as Dorie suggested, I've made two turnovers, filled with my homemade apple jelly. Really, really, yummy. The dough makes great turnovers, really flaky, tender and buttery. 




The recipe for this tart can be found at Dorie's website, or better still get the book! To view the other bakers take on this lovely tart, do stop by TWD blogroll.


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Cook-Your-Books

23 comments:

  1. This tart looks delicious and would make such a nice addition to the holiday table. Happy Thanksgiving!! xo Catherine

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  2. Joyce, that a yummy tart! And it reminds me that my tart pans are collecting dust LOL!

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  3. Looking FAB! Thanks for the tip on water when making the crust, will remember this if I ever bake this cos I do have frozen cranberries crying to be used!

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  4. Hi, Joyce...your tart looks so "artistic" to me ^_^

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  5. Same like P Hong, my tart pans are also gathering dust!

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  6. Hi Joyce, a lovely tart indeed ... and the cranberries ... yum yum ...made me drool !

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  7. Your meringue tart looks really beautiful and delectable, Joyce.

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  8. What an interesting Crackle Tart Joyce. I don't think I have ever seen one before. You are so lucky to be able to tell when to adjust a recipe for the weather around you. I hope to learn that one day. I wouldn't mind a piece of this lovely tart one day either.

    Thanks so much for sharing, Joyce...

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  9. OMY this look absolutely delicious Joyce!! I love this meringue!!

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  10. Your tart is beautiful, Joyce, and I'm so glad the dried cranberries worked out. I also made the galette dough and really enjoyed it - so easy to make and work with and it was delicious as well.

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  11. Hi Joyce,

    Do you have to reduce the amount of sugar when you made this with dried cranberry? Every slice looks so delightful :D

    Zoe

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    1. Good morning Zoe,
      Yes, I did reduce the sugar slightly for the meringue.

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  12. Hi Joyce, this tart is delightfully yummy especially with the addition of cranberries!! So tempting:) You have a great day and cheers :)

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  13. No cranberries in Oz either so I used cherries. Your tart looks great - glad the dried cranberries worked.

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  14. Hi Joyce, how are you? Your cranberries tart look super yummy to me :) one slice please !

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  15. Living in the desert I seem to always need to add a little moisture when called for, glad to see it goes the other way too. I bet the loganberry jam was delicious in this. Interesting that is worked with dried cranberries as well although they look quite plump.

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  16. Joyce , the baked meringue itself looks delicious ! Will have to check that book at the library later ;D

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  17. Love your pictures...the tart looks great!

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  18. That looks so good! How cool that you made it even though you didn't have access to fresh cranberries.

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  19. Nice to know the dried cranberries worked out well (and I really like the idea of that fruit and that jam together) as sometimes it's just good to know all the options out there for what one has on hand. It all looks delicious!

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  20. I was wondering how dried cranberries would work--Dorie is such a fan of dried fruit that I'm sure she would approve of your efforts! I also used the galette dough and really liked it.

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  21. Your tart looks wonderful with the dried cranberries! Mine also only cracked on the edges. I was expecting it to be cracked all over. Maybe it is called "crackle" for it happens when you slice it?

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  22. That's great that dried cranberries worked with this. And lingonberry jam has such a nice flavour.

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