This tart is lemon meringue meets delicious cranberry sauce. I feel like fresh cranberries are such an underutilized fruit even during the time when they’re in season. Everyone knows cranberry sauce and everyone knows dried cranberries that you put on salads or into baked goods, but what else can we do with cranberries? This tart has quickly become a favorite of mine that I will be making year after year. The tanginess of the cranberries and the sweetness of the meringue paired with the crispy pastry crust is just an absolute match made in heaven!
Making this tart is a little bit time consuming but I promise you it is worth the effort. I made it a little easier on myself by buying a premade pie dough that I baked into my tart shell. If you have a favorite pie dough recipe you can absolutely use that. You need enough dough to make one pie crust.
Making the cranberry curd filling is just like I’m making a cranberry sauce. Take your fresh cranberries, orange juice, orange peels, ginger and sugar into a sauce pot and let that cook on the stove until all of the cranberries burst open. The thing that makes this a little bit different than your traditional cranberry sauce is the addition of fresh ginger. I’ve tried it by putting whole chunks of ginger in and letting that steep in the sauce but found that grating it produces a much more ginger forward flavor which I preferred. You can also use an immersion blender to blend the cranberries up a bit which also helps with the color. It will be a beautiful bright red/pink color when you’re finished.
The complicated part is not making the sauce or baking the crust, the time-consuming part is straining out all of the cranberry particulates. I found that putting it through just a strainer isn’t enough, you need one layer of cheese cloth in your strainer to get all of those little bits and pieces out so that you can have a completely smooth filling. Strain your filling once it’s cooked and make sure that you get most of all the bits and pieces out. Once it’s strained add in your eggs and yolks, butter and heavy cream and put it into your pre-baked pie shell. Bake bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until the filling is set. Cool the pie completely before you add the meringue topping.
Making the meringue is simple enough, we are going to use a standard meringue topping. You start with room temperature egg whites and put them in the bowl of your stand mixer. Beat with the whip attachment until soft peaks begin to form. Once your meringue has started to create soft peaks you will add in your cream of tartar and whip again. Once the cream of tartar is fully incorporated you will start to add in the sugar 1 tablespoon at a time with the mixer running until you have used up all of the sugar. Continue on medium high speed until stiff peaks form. You know it is finished when you rub a little bit of the meringue in between your fingers you don’t feel any sugar granules.
To finish off your pie top with the meringue and decorate it however you would like I tend to use the back of a spoon and make a little swoops in the meringue with most of it piled in the center. Using a kitchen torch or the broiler in your oven toast the outside of the meringue until it is nice and golden brown serve immediately. The meringue does not store well overnight, however the pie itself will so you can make the pie ahead of time but be sure to top the meringue when you’re ready to use.
Cranberry Curd Tart with Meringue
Equipment
- 1 10" Tart Pan
- Pie Weights optional
- 1 Kitchen Torch
- 1 Stand or Hand Mixer
Ingredients
For the Curd
- 12 Oz Fresh Cranberries
- 1 Cup Sugar
- 4 Oz Butter room temperature, cubed
- 2 Whole Eggs
- 2 Egg Yolks (you'll use the whites for the meringue!)
- 1 tsp Fresh Grated Ginger or Ginger Paste
- 1 Orange Zest and Juice
- 2 Tbsp Heavy Cream
For the Meringue
- 2 Egg Whites
- ⅛ tsp Cream of Tartar
- 4 Tbsp Sugar
- ½ tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 Pie Shell Store Bought
Instructions
For the Cranberry Curd Tart
- Start by blind baking your crust in the tart pan. I fill my crust with a piece of parchment and weigh it down with beans or rice while it bakes for an even cook on the crust. this also helps the crust to not shrink down into the pan as it bakes. Bake the crust at 350° for 15 minutes or until it is a pale golden brown color.
- While the crust is baking, make the curd. In a small pot, combine cranberries, sugar, ginger, and orange zest and juice. Cook this on medium heat until the cranberries burst and become soft. You can use an immersion blender at this point if you'd like to extract more color from the cranberry skins but this step is optional.
- Strain the cranberry mixture through a layer of cheesecloth to get all of the solids strained out. This is best to do in 2 batches so you can squeeze the liquid through the cheesecloth.
- When your cranberry mixture is strained, mix in your eggs and egg yolks. If the mixture is still hot you will need to temper the eggs by adding a little bit of the cranberry mixture to the eggs at a time. Return the mixture to low heat stirring constantly until the mixture is warmed through. It just needs to be warm enough to melt the butter. Do not let it boil!
- Finish the sauce by adding in your butter and heavy cream, stirring until all the butter has melted and the mixture is nice and glossy.
- Remove your crust from the oven and pour in the cranberry mixture. Return to the oven and bake for an additional 10 minutes, until the curd is just set. remove and let cool.
For the Meringue
- In a mixing bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer, beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until frothy.
- add in the cream of tartar and continue to whip the egg whites on medium high speed until soft peaks begin to form
- with the mixer running, add in your sugar on tablespoon at a time until it is fully incorporated.
- Continue beating until firm peaks have formed, add in the vanilla a mix thoroughly.
Assembling the Tart
- When you are ready to serve the tart, spoon the meringue into the center of the cooled tart and spread around to decorate. Use the back of your spoon to create peaks and swirls as desired.
- Using your kitchen torch, carefully toast the meringue all around.
- Serve immediately, do not top with meringue until you are ready to serve.
