cranberries

Berry Good Tartlets

Everyone loved that winter fruit tart I made 2 weeks ago so I decided to try a slight variation on it; individual tarts created in low sided round tartlet pans, they have a removable disk bottom for easy removal of each tartlet. I used some frozen blueberries instead of the pears plus I added a touch of ginger to spice it up differently.  If you are a ginger hater, just leave that out.

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They turned out really tasty, I used my favorite crisp cookie crust covered with a mixture of fruits and the touch of crumb almond topping.  We each had our own tartlet slightly warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream; perfect.  Joe said that he really loves the cookie crust; great cookie flavor.

This is a simple recipe; toss the fruits with sugar and a touch of tapioca.  If you don’t have tapioca use some cornstarch or rice flour mix.  They look like I bought them in a bakery.  I took one to a church event so I would have a safe treat to enjoy and was envied by all the others at my table eating commercially made wheat based pastries. Serve these tartlets and I promise you no one will even believe they are eating gluten free!

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 Fruity Mix Tartlets

Start by making a gf cookie crust and the crumb topping. If you have leftover crumb topping in the fridge you are ahead of the game for making pies and tarts!

Cookie crust

Place the following in a stand mixer bowl and combine

1 cup GF flour (recipe below)

¼ cup granulated sugar

1 tsp xanthan gum

½ tsp cinnamon

Mix well, add 5 tbsp cold butter, cut into 6-7 chunks.  Mix on low until the butter is just crumbs blended in.

Add 1 tsp. vanilla extract and 1 tbsp water.  Blend well.

tartlet pans

I love these little tartlet pans made by Chicago Metallic.

 

Pour the crust crumbs into six mini tart pans or a ten inch tart pan that was sprayed with cooking spray.  Spread it up the sides ¼ inch (½ an inch for the big tart pan).  Press gently in so it is a cohesive crust but do not press really hard or your crust will be like concrete when the tartlets finish baking!

Crumb topping

Put all four ingredients in the same mixing bowl you made the bottom crust in and mix well with mixer paddle until crumbs form.

¾ c brown rice flour mix

½ c sugar

½ tsp xanthan gum

1/3 c cold butter cut into six chunks

You will use a ½ cup of the crumbs. Put the rest in a tightly sealing glass container and store in the fridge for your next pie/tart. It should keep for several weeks.

Almond Topping: mix well

½ cup crumb topping

¼ cup slivered almonds

Heat the oven to 375 degrees while you make the filling.

Filling

1 baking apple

1 ¼ cup frozen blueberries, not defrosted

1 skimpy cup raw cranberries

½ cup sugar

1 tbsp. granulated tapioca

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. ginger

Peel, core, quarter and slice thinly the cooking apple, put in a mixing bowl with the blueberries and cranberries.  Be sure to pick over the cranberries and remove any soft or iffy ones.  Add the sugar, tapioca, ginger and cinnamon, mix with a spoon.

Pour into the crusted tartlet pans.  Mound up a bit; it will sink when it is cooked.  If you have any leftover fruit; you can bake it in an oven safe dish with crumbs on top.  Sprinkle the tartlets with the almond crumb topping.  I put the pans on a baking sheet for easy placement and removal from the oven. Pop the tartlets in the oven and bake 40-45 minutes or until bubbly and lightly browned.  They take that long because the blueberries are frozen. Cool at least 10 minutes.  Serve warm or cold.  Enjoy!

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Brown Rice Flour Mix
2 c brown rice flour (finely ground)

2/3 c potato starch – Not potato flour!

1/3 c tapioca flour

Fruity Winter Tart

Well, this is my winter dessert Chopped blog post (Food Network show)…. I have some fresh cranberries, two almost ripe pears, one ripe apple, leftover crumb pie topping and slivered almonds.  What to make? I didn’t have a recipe that suited those specific ingredients so I threw together this pretty tart with the three fruits for a filling and a very easy topping.  Cranberries are good for you and they add a sparkling flavor to the apple/pear mix.

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This turned out quite good, there is a crisp cookie crust covered with a mixture of sweetened fruits and a crumb and almond topping.  We had slices of it still warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream tonight; perfect. Someone had seconds! I restrained myself.  Besides, I had a bigger slice of tart. And yes, the person having seconds, he does not need to avoid wheat but this tart made him want more!

This is a simple recipe; toss the fruit with sugar and flour.  And it looks like it came from the bakery.  If you make this tart I promise you no one will even believe it is GF.  They will just beg for seconds or thirds! I can’t wait to bake it again.

Note: we ate the rest of it today, still got but I think it is at best optimal flavor while still slightly warm.  I plan to try variations on it using other fruits; maybe blueberries instead of cranberries.  But it turned out great for a first time ever recipe.

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Winter Fruit Tart

Start by making a gf cookie crust and the crumb topping.

Cookie crust

Place the following in a stand mixer bowl and combine

1 cup GF flour (recipe below)

¼ cup granulated sugar

1 tsp xanthan gum

½ tsp cinnamon

Mix well, add 5 tbsp cold butter, cut into 6-7 chunks.  Mix on low until the butter is just crumbs blended in.

Add 1 tsp. vanilla extract and 1 tbsp water.  Blend well.

Pour into a ten inch tart pan that was sprayed with cooking spray.  Spread it up the sides ½ an inch.  Press gently in so it is a cohesive crust but do not press really hard or it will be like concrete when you finish baking it!

Crumb topping

Put all four ingredients in the same mixing bowl you made the bottom crust in and mix well with mixer paddle until crumbs form.

¾ c brown rice flour mix

½ c sugar

½ tsp xanthan gum

1/3 c cold butter cut into six chunks

You will use a heaping ½ cup of the crumbs. Put the rest in a tightly sealing glass container and store in the fridge for your next pie/tart. It should keep for several weeks.

Almond Topping: mix well

½ cup crumb topping

¼ cup slivered almonds

Heat the oven to 375 degrees while you make the filling.

Filling

1 baking apple

2 nearly ripe Bartlett pears

1 cup raw cranberries

½ cup sugar

1 ½ tbsp. gf flour mix

¼ tsp. cinnamon

Peel, core and slice thinly the cooking apple and core/slice the two pears, put in a mixing bowl with the washed cranberries.  Be sure to pick over the cranberries and remove any soft or iffy ones.  Add the sugar, flour and cinnamon, mix with a spoon to coat the fruit.

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Pour into the crust.  Sprinkle the tart with the almond crumb topping.  Place in the oven and bake 40-45 minutes or until bubbly, lightly browned and a fork goes through the apple slices easily.  Cool at least 20 minutes.  Serve warm or cold.  Enjoy!

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Brown Rice Flour Mix
2 c brown rice flour (finely ground)

2/3 c potato starch – Not potato flour!

1/3 c tapioca flour

Crunchy Tasty Cranberry Crackle Tart

Like a fruit tart and a pavlova had a baby: this is the felicitous result.  Light and delicate, making it perfect after a hearty feast.  It is really guilt free if you eat it minus any toppings like the whipped cream or ice cream.

I found this recipe on line, back before Thanksgiving, at splendidtable.com.  I loved the look and sound of it but didn’t find time to make it until Christmas Eve.  Once I tasted it; love at first bite.   I devoured it with vanilla ice cream on top at the Christmas lunch, nice flavor combination.  New Years Eve is coming up and I want to bake another, this time serving it like you do a Pavlova, with lightly sweetened real whipped cream on top. Yumm!

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It is really easy to throw together.  If you are gf you can use the recipe I provide, I adapted her recipe to make it gluten tree. At holidays like Christmas Wegmans often has gf redi-made crusts. If you are a wheat eater use whatever cookie tart crust you like.  I included cinnamon in the crust and found it added a lot to the complexity of the flavors.  The crust absolutely needs to be pre-baked before you put the tart together.

I should say I seldom use fresh cranberries; I generally make a fresh relish – old family recipe – for Thanksgiving but never got it made this past November.  So I had the bag of cranberries in the fridge in the fruit bin.  Yeah, it sat there a month: I did have to pick through it (you always should) after I rinsed them and remove and squishy ones.  There are usually a few of those mixed in and they aren’t great for anyone to eat.  Let them dry. Anyway, my point is; this tart is fantastic tasting even if you aren’t a huge cranberry fan.

I used some smooth raspberry jam (what I had) but you could probably use most any jam.  Just chose one full of real fruit in a flavor you enjoy as you can definitely taste the jammy flavor mixed in with the crust and the meringue topping. I loved it with raspberry jam, a favorite flavor for me.

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Fresh out of the oven

I didn’t take a lot of pictures as I wasn’t really planning to blog this recipe but it was so tasty I had to get it out there for people to try.

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Sweet cookie crust, gf

Place the following in a stand mixer bowl and combine:

1 cup GF flour (recipe below)

¼ cup granulated sugar

1 tsp xanthan gum

½ tsp. cinnamon

Add 5 tbsp cold butter, cut into 6-7 chunks.  Mix on medium low until the butter is just crumbs blended in.

Add 1 tsp. vanilla extract and 1 tbsp water.  Blend well.

Pour the crumbs into a ten inch tart pan that was sprayed with cooking spray.  Or a glass pie pan.  Spread it up the sides.  Press gently in so it is a cohesive crust but do not press really hard or it will be like concrete when you finish baking it!

Bake at 350 degrees for 18 minutes. Set the crust on a rack to cool to room temperature.  Do not let it get more than light brown.

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Just before cutting it

Brown Rice Flour Mix
2 c brown rice flour

2/3 c potato starch

1/3 c tapioca flour

Filling

2 tablespoons chunky cherry, raspberry or strawberry jam

2 large egg whites, at room temperature

Pinch of fine sea salt

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups cranberries (if they’re frozen, don’t thaw)

Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting.

When you’re ready to fill and bake the tart: Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

Gently spoon the jam on top of the crust and spread it evenly over the bottom, I used the back of my big spoon for this operation. In a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat the egg whites with the salt at medium speed just until they are fluffy and fairly opaque. With the mixer going, add the sugar in a slow, steady stream, then keep beating on high until the whites are shiny and form definite peaks; they will look like marshmallow.  This is a meringue.

Pour the cranberries into the bowl of meringue and, using a flexible spatula or spoonula fold them into the meringue. Try to distribute the fruit evenly, but don’t mix too much– you want to keep the meringue fluffy. Spoon the meringue over the jam and spread it to the edges, making it swirly if you’d like. The jam might push up around the sides of the meringue, and that’s fine.  Don’t fret if it looks like not enough filling, it will puff up in the oven to fill the pie pan.

Bake the tart for 1 hour, at which point the top will be light beige and cracked here and there. (If you’d like more color, you can bake it a bit longer or even put it under the broiler.)  I did not go there!  Transfer the tart to a cooling rack and cool to room temperature.  I did cut it while slightly warm and we all thought that was just perfection.  If you’d like, and I do, dust the tart with confectioners’ sugar before serving. Whipped cream on top is also great.Storing: The tart is best the day it’s made, although it’s still pretty nice the next day. Leave the tart at room temperature, covering only the cut part with a piece of wax paper or plastic wrap.  I doubt you will have any the second day anyway. It is that tasty.