Cranberry white chocolate lime tart

Two weeks ago, packets of fresh cranberries appeared on the fruits aisle. I've yet to seen fresh cranberries before. I'm more used to seeing its cousin, the dried cranberries. I like dried cranberries and have always added them to my granola whenever I make granola. I suppose with Christmas approaching, everyone was using festive related ingredients to make goodies and treats (- think cranberries, eggnog, gingerbread, peppermint). Well, as for me, as the label on the bag of cranberries says, "Buy Two, Freeze One", that's exactly what I did!

Cranberry white chocolate lime tart

I was googling in search of cranberry recipes, when I saw this. My mind refused to budge from that post and I kept thinking of the tart, even while at work. I knew that well, it was going to be the one.

The two bags of cranberries

As always, when trying out new ingredients, I like to just eat one sample of the ingredient on its own, to see how it was. Biting into a fresh cranberry...was an unique experience. Let's just say that it taste very very different from its dried cranberries cousin. It was sour! And since I bit half, I looked down at it and was surprised to see a white pith-like layer under the red outer shell...erm it's hard to describe, so here's a picture. Let's say I've learnt my lesson, and will not bite into a fresh cranberry, like say, ever again.

Awesome tart tart combination

While the flavour combination was from Bree's website, I modified the individual components. I had leftover tart dough in the freezer from my previous tarts, and I didn't want to keep them for long, as experience tells me that the longer tart dough is kept in the fridge, the more likely the dough will turn dry. Thus, I thought that it would be perfect to use up the leftovers for this tart.

And from the pictures, I thought that the filling was a bit different from what I had in mind. I wanted a thicker kinda topping, sorta like a cranberry sauce texture filling? So I searched the net and found a recipe for cranberry sauce here, which I again, modified. Haha.

The only thing I stuck to was the recipe for lime curd, which I must say, tasted great. I had leftovers, which I spread over warm scones for breakfast and the combination was to close my eyes and "mmmmmmmmmmmm". Then again, curd has that effect on me. Always. ;)

Lime zest + curd and cranberry sauce; Slice of tart

Cranberry White Chocolate Lime Tart (adapted from Bree at BakedBree)

Tart recipe can be found here

Lime Curd
1/4 cup fresh lime juice (about 3-4 med limes)
1/4 teaspoon cornstarch
3/8 cup sugar
3 large egg yolks
1/4 cup butter
zest from 3 limes

In a saucepan over medium heat, whisk together lime juice and cornstarch until it dissolves. Whisk in the sugar and the egg yolks. Add the butter and whisk constantly. The curd will thicken once it comes to a boil, about 5 minutes. Put through a strainer and stir in lime zest. Cover the surface of the curd with plastic wrap, so that it touches the curd. Chill.

Cranberry sauce
1/2 cup water
1 small orange, zested and juiced
2/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 tbs honey
1/2 tsp cinnamon
12-16 oz. fresh or frozen cranberries

Combine water, orange zest and juice, honey, cinnamon and sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved. Stir in the cranberries and bring the mixture to a boil. Lower the heat and let simmer uncovered, about 10 minutes, until the cranberries have popped and the sauce is thickened. Remove from heat and let cool completely. Sauce will thicken as it cools. Store in the refrigerator.

White chocolate - I melted some white chocolate in the microwave and used it as it was without adding any  thing else.

Assembling
Spread the white chocolate layer into the bottom of the baked and cooled crust. (Freeze for 15 minutes - I didn't follow this step and when I spread the lime curd, the two layers kinda melded together into one :/). Cover the white chocolate layer with the lime curd. Cover the lime curd with the cranberries. Chill overnight.

The flavour combination was quite scrumptious. I would never have come up with the combination myself. The Sis found it too sour for her liking cos the cranberries, by nature, were sour, and add on the tart lime curd, and that makes for a dessert bordering on the sour side. I thought that the thin layer of sweet white chocolate would sorta balance things out, but she commented that the layer of white chocolate was too thin. Ha! Luckily for me, she loved the tart crust (I know, so do I, *sigh*), so she and her boyfriend polished off about a third of the tart for their breakfast. Lol.

The puzzling thing was, my tart dough shrank! It didn't the previous time I baked it for the ginger brulee tarts, so when I first saw the crust, I was like WT^@^$&%&#^*H? There's like barely enough sides for me to fill it with anything, how am I going to layer three layers inside that whee thing? In the end, I ploughed on cos I just wanted the flavour combination that badly, but I reduced the proportions by quite a bit. I reckon if the sides were higher, I would have been motivated to make the actual white chocolate filling, which sounds way better than plain melted chocolate. Meh. Anyway, still, a pretty good tart overall. :)