Tasty Tart

A cooking board that I post on is having a holiday recipe exchange. We all sent the host Katie a dessert recipe of our choice and she randomly sent our recipe to another member of the board. This tart recipe was the one that was sent to me. I was a bit hesitant at first because I do not really care for cranberries but I decided to give it a try anyway. I even went out and bought myself one of those fancy tart pans for the occasion. ;) Oh yeah, and if all that you have is a mini food processor enjoy making the crust because it fills the entire thing up and gives it quite the workout. :)


I made the following modifications to the recipe...
- The first change that I made was in the filling. I was not able to purchase the creme de cassis so I used seedless blackberry jam in its place.
- The second change was that the recipe called for frozen cranberries and I could not find these anywhere, so I bought fresh. After reading through the reviews I noticed people talking about a wash/sugar/freeze method so that is what I did. I washed the berries and mixed them with the sugar and froze them in a single layer on a baking sheet covered with foil and kept them there until I was ready to cook them. I also only used 1 bag of cranberries instead of the 1.5 the recipe called for.
- And my last modification is that I decided to add some chocolate to the top of the cranberries so that people knew that there was chocolate involved in the dessert (since I took the dish to my husband’s work Christmas party.


Like I said before I am not really a lover of cranberries but I gave this tart a try and it was pretty tasty. While I was grabbing my plate on the way out the door at my husband's Christmas party a lady asked me if I had made it and I told her yes, she said that it was excellent and even requested this recipe.

Chocolate Tart with Candied Cranberries
(Source: Epicurious.com; Bon Appétit December 1999 )

Ingredients
Crust
1 2/3 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3 tablespoons (about) ice water
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Filling
1/2 cup whipping cream
8 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped
3 tablespoons crème de cassis (black currant-flavored liqueur)

Candied cranberries
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
1 1/2 12-ounce packages frozen cranberries, unthawed
1 cup sugar

Preparation
for crust: Blend flour, sugar and salt in processor. Add butter and cut in, using on/off turns, until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add 2 1/2 tablespoons water, egg yolk and vanilla. Blend until moist clumps form, adding more water by 1/2 tablespoonfuls if dry. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic; chill at least 2 hours. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Let soften slightly before rolling out.)

Preheat oven to 375°F. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface to 13- to 14-inch round. Transfer dough to 9-inch-diameter tart pan with removable bottom. Cut dough overhang to 3/4 inch; fold overhang in and press, forming sides that extend 1/4 inch above top of pan. Pierce crust all over with fork. Freeze 15 minutes. Bake crust 15 minutes. If sides of crust fall, press up with back of fork. Bake crust until beginning to brown, about 15 minutes longer. Cool on rack.

for filling: Bring cream to simmer in heavy medium saucepan. Remove from heat. Add chocolate and whisk until smooth; whisk in liqueur. Pour filling into crust. Refrigerate until filling is firm, at least 2 hours and up to 1 day.

for candied cranberries: Preheat oven to 375°F. Spray rimmed baking sheet with nonstick spray. Toss cranberries and sugar in medium bowl to blend. Spread out mixture on baking sheet. Bake 10 minutes. Using metal spatula, stir berries gently. Bake until berries are thawed and most sugar is dissolved, about 5 minutes longer. Cool on sheet 5 minutes. Spoon berries atop filling; drizzle with syrup from sheet. Chill 1 hour. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Keep chilled.)