Cranberry Custard Tart

My love for cranberry sauce continues here with my favourite cranberry custard tart. It is such a delicious tart that once you try it, it is sure to become your favourite too. The filling is slightly tart, slightly sweet, creamy, and oh so delicious. Anyone who loves cranberries is in for a great treat with this tart.

Ingredients for Cranberry Custard Tart

Four main ingredients are all it takes to make this super beautiful and delicious tart.

List of Ingredients for Cranberry Custard Tart:

• Crust
  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 3 tablespoons icing sugar (optional)
  • pinch of salt
  • 3/4 cup unsalted butter (really cold)
  • 1 egg (separate the yellow and white)
  • 2 tablespoons of really cold water
• Filling
  • 1 1/2 cup cranberry sauce (recipe here)
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter
  • pinch of salt

The Cranberry Sauce

The first thing we need to do is start with making cranberry sauce. Of course, you can use a store bought sauce, but I prefer to make mine, especially since it’s so easy to do and you can use it for so many other things. Find my recipe here: Fresh Cranberry Sauce.

Straining the Cranberry Sauce

Once we have the sauce ready, we need to smash the cranberries and strain the sauce.

• Using a hand blender, blend the sauce until it’s mostly smooth.
• Then, using a strainer or a sieve, strain it so you have a really smooth sauce.
• Discard whatever is left in the sieve.
• Set the strained sauce aside while you make the crust.

The Pie Crust for Cranberry Custard Tart

Let’s make the crust.

• Add 2 cups of flour, 3 tablespoons of icing sugar, and a pinch of salt into a large mixing bowl.
• Mix all three things together so they are evenly distributed.
• Using a sharp knife cut 3/4 cups of really cold butter into the bowl, and using a pastry cutter or a fork, mix the butter into the flour.
• The flour will take on a pea-size consistency.
• Mix 1 egg yellow and 2 tablespoons of cold water in a small bowl, and add it to the flour. (Do not discard the egg white. You will need it later.)
• Gently bring the flour together to form a dough.
• Do not knead. Kneading will mean a hard crust.

Chilling the Crust Dough

Once the dough is ready, we need to chill it for a bit.

• Place the dough into some plastic wrap and bring it together to form a disc.
• Do not overwork the dough while doing this.
• Cover well with the wrap and place it in the fridge. Let it sit there for about an hour or so.
• Once ready, remove it from the fridge, and using a rolling pin, roll it into a circular shape large enough to fit your pie dish.
• Using the rolling pin, lift the rolled out pie crust and place it into the pie dish.
• Using your hands, push it against the walls of the dish and into the grooves.
• Cut off the excess crust from the top and place the pie dish in the freezer for about 1/2 an hour. This step will ensure that your crust gets crisp when baked. The colder the butter, the crispier the crust.

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Baking the Pie Shell

In order to have a crisp pie shell, we need to bake it before filling it.

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• Remove the pie crust from the freezer and dock it using a fork. Docking it will ensure it doesn’t get air bubbles in it and is crisp.
• Bake the empty pie crust for about 20 minutes or until it just starts to brown.
• Remove the crust from the oven, however, do not turn the oven off.
• Remember that egg white we had set aside earlier? We can use it now. Whip the white. Using a cooking brush spread it all over the crust.
• Return the crust back to the oven and bake it for another 10 minutes. Remove it and let it cool down completely.

The Cranberry Custard Pie Filling

Now on to making the custard for the filling.

• In a medium sized pan, heat the cranberry sauce so it’s hot enough, but not boiling yet.
• While that is happening, add 2 eggs and 2 more egg yellows into a bowl.
• Whip them until they are pale yellow in colour.

Tempering the Eggs

Once the cranberry sauce has heated up enough, we will add the eggs to the sauce to make a custard. But before we can do that, we need to temper the eggs.

• Tempering the eggs means we need to bring the eggs to the temperature of the cranberry sauce.
• If we add cold eggs to the sauce, the eggs will get scrambled and the custard will go bad.
• Pour about 1/4 a cup of the hot cranberry sauce into the eggs and mix the sauce into the eggs.
• This will bring the temperature of the eggs up and then we can add them to the pan with the sauce.

Finishing the Cranberry Custard

Once the eggs have been tempered, we can add them to the remaining cranberry sauce.

• Add the tempered eggs to the pan and mix them into the cranberry sauce.
• Cook the eggs and cranberry mixture for about 10 minutes to allow the custard to thicken. Continue to stir the pan constantly in order to keep the custard smooth.
• Once it has thickened enough, add the 1/4 cup of butter to the pan. Stir it in and allow it to melt.
• Remove the pan from the heat and allow it to cool down almost completely. I tend to cover the custard with a plastic wrap to prevent it from forming a crust.
• Using a serving spoon or a ladle, spoon the cooled custard into the prebaked and cooled crust.
• Place it in the fridge for at least 2-4 hours to allow the custard to set.

Serving Suggestion

Once the Cranberry Custard Tart has cooled down, remove it from the fridge and allow it to sit on the counter for at least 1/2 an hour. To serve:

• sprinkle with some roasted cracked pistachios
• and white chocolate.
• I love to serve mine with a dollop of fresh whipped cream or
• a dollop of vanilla ice cream.
• Enjoy with a side of fresh coffee.

Tried and Liked the Recipe?

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