I know we still have Thanksgiving to get through but as Christmas gets closer, you'll start to see more and more cranberry recipes. I love the muffins and loaf cakes you see filled with plump cranberries and orange zest, but I wanted to make something a little different.
It was actually the color of cranberries and a popular dessert from England- the bakewell tart-that inspired me to make this.
You can find bakewell tarts available in almost every bakery back home. A buttery crust is filled with raspberry jam and then topped with a ground almond and egg batter, also known as frangipane to make a super moist sponge cake.
The top of the tart is usually covered with a thin layer of fondant icing and a cherry is plopped in the middle.
Cranberry and white chocolate are true besties so I skipped the traditional fondant and went with a simple drizzle of white chocolate in it's place. I hope the people of Bakewell Village don't get too upset at me!
This tart isn't that difficult to make but can be a little time consuming. Try and make the cranberry relish, filling and tart shell all a day ahead and then just put the tart together the next day.
I reduced my fresh cranberries down to a relish consistency and used them to cover the bottom of the tart.
Once the frangipane was ready, all I had to do was dollop it onto the prepared crust and spread it out evenly with a spatula. Top with some slivered almonds and let the oven do the rest!
Eating this tart brought back some memories for me and half of it's gone already!
The cranberry relish and the almond filling can be made a day ahead. Store in the refrigerator until ready to use.
Let the almond filling sit for 15 minutes until soft before adding to the tart shell. Adapted from The Smitten Kitchen, http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2010/03/bakewell-tart/
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