holiday tarts

one christmas i made little trios of tarts as gifts for special friends. choosing three came out of not being able to choose one that would please everyone's palates. the three finalists were:

• ethiopian coffee bean-infused chocolate tart (from book of tarts, recipe on a previous post)
• blackberry tart with rose cream (from tartine, another trusted cookbook. i'll post about their buttermilk scones soon!)
• cranberry, caramel, and almond tart (from book of tarts, recipe below!)

unfortunately due to a faulty computer, i lost the pictures. what a shame... they were nice. they were each so different, it was fun for me to test out all the recipes, although challenging to do them all at one time.

i love coffee and chocolate, and together it's hard to go wrong. the rose cream tart came from another book, and the crust was quite different than maury rubin's. i didn't particularly like it as a tart crust, but it's now my staple sugar cookie dough. for that, it's incredible! the cranberry, caramel, and almond tart was very good, also. it's a perfect winter tart-- warm from the oven, the fresh cranberries (that burst in the oven) make it super tart, and the caramel and almond are the perfect compliment to that.

can't wait to enjoy that one next to my well-lit christmas tree in a few months.

cranberry, caramel, and almond tart

1 cup sugar, 1 1/4 cups heavy cream, 1 3/4 cups cranberries, 6 ounces sliced almonds, 6 partially baked tart shells of standard dough

1 preheat oven to three hundred and fifty degrees.

2 to make the caramel, spread the sugar in a large heavy skillet and heat over low heat. place the cream in a small saucepan over low heat next to the sugar, until the sugar melts into a sheet of even caramel, approximately five minutes.

3 meanwhile, heat the cream over low heat

4 whisk the heated cream into the caramel and cook until any large pieces of hardened caramel melt. strain into a medium bowl, and let cool for fifteen minutes.

5 add the cranberries and almonds to the caramel, and stir to coat.

6 place the tart shells on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. divide the cranberry mixture among the tart shells, mounding it up in the centers.

7 bake for twenty to twenty five minutes, until the cranberries have puckered and the juices are bubbling slowly around the edges. remove from the oven and let sit for thirty seconds, then remove tart rings with tongs (unless using tart pans, in which case cool for ten minutes on a wire rack before removing from the pans). using a wide spatula, transfer to a wire rack to cool for at least ten minutes before serving.

(from book of tarts, page 96)