I have never been a big fan of cranberry sauce. In fact, I am not a huge fan of sweet in my savoury food, under any circumstances, with a couple of notable exceptions: pear in a chicory and blue cheese salad being one and salted butter caramel being the other (although that’s really savoury in sweet …)
I think of cranberry sauce as my sister’s thing and often buy a little pot at Christmas with her in mind. I still don’t want any on my turkey, but last year, against all expectations, I became mildly obsessed with homemade cranberry jam.
It all started when I decided I wanted to make an alternative Christmas dessert (alongside the obligatory chocolate yule log, of course, which my step daughter has been requesting since her birthday in March). I had also been waiting for an excuse to make a Bakewell tart for a while. They come up often in the reruns of the Great British Bake Off I’ve been watching. In addition, my favourite health bar of the moment is called a Bakewell tart and really does taste like a virtuous version of its namesake. It’s just missing the pastry, oh and the icing.
I have Nigella’s entire back catalogue (except for Nigellissima – Italian not being my thing, really) which I frequently consult at times when I need inspiration and she never let’s me down. In Feast I found a recipe for a festive Bakewell tart with icing made with clementine juice (satsuma? tangerine? I’m never very clear) and cranberry jam. I have a vague recollection of making it many years ago. The only thing which lives on in my memory is a runny icing and an almond filling which hadn’t set totally either. Undeterred, I ploughed on.
In fact, I even take an additional risk, using bargain basement unrefined ground almonds, instead of their fine pale cream siblings but it all worked out beautifully and had a nice almondy flavour.
Unsurprisingly, my French in-laws were a little suspicious of it so I ended up packing the leftover half of the tart in my suitcase and serving it in little bite-sized cubes to my side of the family. My nephew was a big fan (albeit of just the icing, but the icing is so good, who can blame him?)
An aside: this year I’ve made it into individual tarts, which are much more versatile than a large one. I find people are far more inclined to try a mini tart than say ‘yes’ to a slice of a large tart.
I thought the main bonus of this recipe was going to be the almond pastry which really was easy to work with (once it had chilled properly – mine needed half an hour). I managed to get a nice thin crisp layer and no breakages getting the rolled out pastry into the case so I was already imagining the other things I could whip up to sit atop this delightful base. However, time has proven that in fact the main legacy of this recipe in my life has been the cranberry jam.
One of the clear benefits of living in Paris is that on a weekend morning, delicious bread and pastries can be procured at little expense on most street corners. Moderation is not my forté, so I limit myself to this treat just once a week and on my birthday. I go through baguette phases, where my dream breakfast is a slice of ‘tradition’ baguette with salted butter and jam (rhubarb, strawberry, plum), lemon curd or Speculoos spread. At other times, real bakery-baked brioche (as opposed to the hideous mass-produced nastiness from the supermarket that makes me sad but almost all French children very happy) is where it’s at, slathered with white chocolate spread from Le Pain Quotidien (I’ve worked out how to replicate this here) or chocolate and coconut spread snaffled from the nearby hotel when family come to visit and most recently some Hotel Chocolat spread (my recipe for a homemade version can be found here).
I am currently in the brioche phase and one morning, just before last Christmas, when I had made the cranberry Bakewell tart the previous day and had almost a jam jar’s worth of cranberry jam left over, in a flash of inspiration, I decided to layer it over some of the white chocolate spread on brioche and haven’t looked back since. It’s the perfect combination!! The cranberry jam tart and jewel-coloured, the white chocolate spread so creamy and sweet.
So whether you make the tarts because you’re in the mood for a different festive dessert, make just the base because you’re in the market for well-behaved almond pastry or go straight for the cranberry jam to see why I’m so obsessed with it, I hope you enjoy it.
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Festive frangipane cranberry mini tarts
Makes 24 small tarts or one 26cm tart. You may end up with leftover pastry or jam, depending on how thin you roll your pastry and how much jam you like in your tarts!
Ingredients
Cranberry jam
- 250g fresh cranberries
- 250g caster sugar
Almond pastry
- 175g plain flour
- 30g ground almonds
- 50g icing sugar
- 125g cold butter
- 1 egg, beaten
- pinch of salt
- 1-3 tbsp cold water
Frangipane filling
- 125g unsalted butter
- 125g caster sugar
- 3 eggs
- zest of a satsuma
- 125g ground almonds
Icing
- Royal icing mix
- juice of a satsuma
Method
Cranberry jam
Wash the cranberries and pop them in a saucepan with a tiny amount of water and the sugar. Heat them over a low heat until the sugar dissolves and then turn up to boil. The berries will burst and release all their pectin – although you may need to squash some with a wooden spoon – and the mixture is done once it’s jam-like. This shouldn’t take longer than 15 minutes in total. Leave the mixture to cool if you’re using it in the tart or pour straight into a sterilised jam jar and seal if you want it to keep.
Almond pastry
Throw the flour, ground almonds, icing sugar and diced, cold butter into a food processor and whizz together until it resembles breadcrumbs. Beat the egg and add the salt and 1 tbsp of cold water to it. Tip this mixture down the funnel of the food processor as it’s running and the pastry will quickly come together. If it doesn’t, add another tbsp or two of water, as necessary. Tip the pastry out and shape into a disc. Wrap it in clingfilm and pop it in the fridge to chill.
Frangipane filling
Melt the butter and leave it to cool slightly. Mix together the sugar, eggs and satsuma zest and then add the butter. Stir in the ground almonds.
Putting it all together
Preheat your oven to 200°C. Roll out the pastry and use a cutter to form circles to line the holes of a tart tin. Spoon a layer of cranberry jam into each mini tart then top with frangipane mixture, covering the jam completely. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, then leave to cool.
Icing
Squeeze the juice of a satsuma and mix in enough royal icing mix to make an icing thick enough to not run straight off but thin enough to be spreadable. Ice each of the tarts and decorate the tops quickly before it sets with anything suitable festive.