Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Cranberry Curd Tart With Pecan Cookie Crust Adapted From NY Times Recipe


Every single Thanksgiving I make a pumpkin pie and my families traditional Cranberry pie. Sometimes I add an additional pie to experiment with, but only if there are a lot of people coming. This year a friend posted a recipe from the New York Times that I just could not resist changing things up this year. So I did not make my traditional Cranberry pie and instead went with the Cranberry curd tart!

The recipe from the New York Times is a Cranberry Curd (think lemon curd) Tart with a hazelnut crust which I should probably be really enamored with being from Oregon and having lived on a hazelnut tree homestead for the first few years of my life. Alas, I have never fallen for the coveted Oregon nut so I decided from the get go to use pecans as an alternative which in my mind also makes up for the lack of a pecan pie.


My next dilemma was my lack of rice flour which is called for in the crust, rather than making the crust with a gluten flour I decided to substitute quinoa flour in place of the rice flour, which technically is a seed and qualifies it as a non grain, although I am sure some paleo diet followers would argue with that. Using the quinoa kept the recipe gluten free at the very least. 

What I ended up with really tasted a lot like a peanut butter cookie with a pecan flavor. It worked really well with the Cranberry curd. To find the original recipe go to: http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017817-cranberry-curd-tart?smid=pi-nytfood&smtyp=cur&crlt.pid=camp.71ov4KQngoCZ

All you do to create the pecan crust is substitute pecans for hazelnuts and quinoa for the rice flour.
I will definitely makes this recipe again I really liked it and I think it provided a new spark to the traditional meal.

If you are looking for quinoa flour for gluten free cooking Bob's Red Mill is great:
                                       


A couple notes, 1) I don't have a tart pan so I used a spring form pan and it worked just fine, but did not provide the pretty edge a tart pan does 2) I used a mini food processor with success so if you don't have the space for a full sized one, or don't want to pull the big one out the small version is fine, and 3) I somehow ended up with a bit runny curd, it tasted great, but I think I should have made sure my eggs were the size the recipe recommended and thickened it a bit longer on the stove.

These are the spring form pans I use:
                                   

and this is the little food processor I have:

                                          


Let me know if you try it and what you think.
What are you family holiday traditions? Do you have a special dessert you make every year or do you try something new each year?