Exploring Festive Flavors: How to Create a Stunning Cranberry Spruce Tart with Candied Pinecones

Plated Cranberry Spruce Tart

Cranberry Spruce Tart done baking

Rolling out the Pastry Dough

Mixing The Dough

All the filling ingredients in the bowl.

Juicing an orange.

While it may be the end of January, that doesn;t mean it's too early to start planning for next Christmas. Yes yes I hear you groaning, how can he already be thinking about next Christmas when I'm sure he hasn't paid off the debt from last Christmas. Well I have and this holiday dessert is a promise not to break the bank as it will require the purchasing of almost no ingredients other than flour, tallow and sugar, assuming you plan accordingly.

Last Christmas I made my first Italian Style Christmas cookie plate. One of my favorite things that had come off the plate was the cranberry spruce tartlets. These baby tarts were the perfect pop of holiday cheer in a single mouth full. Made with foraged spruce tips preserved in sugar and wild cranberries from the wilds of Connecticut, these bite sized desserts were tart and sweet with the perfect savoury crust.

This year due to unforeseen circumstances that were mostly out of my control, I missed not only the wild cranberry harvest in Connecticut but also did not have time to make the holiday cookie plate. Both of these thoughts made me a little sad and inspired me to shake off that sadness. Why shouldn't I enjoy these flavours in another form? Just because Christmas had passed didn't mean I couldn't cook with cranberries anymore and I had made some candied spruce tips earlier in the year.

So at the end of last week, when I was on my way to my folks place to do laundry, when lightning struck. I was foraging for a snack in the kitchen when I noticed a fresh bag of cranberries in the fridge. I asked my mom if she had any plans for them and she immediately said "Why, do you want them? Take them!" I was overjoyed. The cranberries I needed to make this dessert a reality had finally arrived and now all I needed was to make the magic happen.

I returned back to my apartment with the cranberries and several days later; I felt called to use them. Deciding that as this dessert was just for me; I would make one large dessert instead of many small ones. So I went into the kitchen and began.

First thing was first, macerating the fruit, In a large bowl I added the cranberries and then some fresh squeezed orange juice from a small orange, then the chopped zest and some chopped candied spruce needles, finally a large spoon of spicebush flowers preserved in sugar and a healthy slug of sambuca. Next, thinking to myself that cranberries are hard and rather dry, they might macerate better if they were smashed up a little; so I pounded the mixture gently with a rolling pin.

Setting this aside, I began to make the crust. Lately, I have been using tallow in my pie crusts instead of butter and have found it to be superior. This is a regular 3:2:1 crust, 3 parts flour, 2 parts fat, 1 part water. You can make it with oat flour for a gluten free crust and also with coconut oil for a vegan pastry. Both are quite tasty.

Once the crust has chilled and you have decorated the pie top well and the pie is completely assembled, bake the pie at 425 F for 30 to 45 minutes or until the filling bubbles nicely. The bubbling is an important sign showing the filling has gotten hot enough to set so it won't leak out all over the place when you cut the pie.

I decided to serve this with a little bit of vanilla ice cream and male pitch pine cones. The ice cream increased the cooling aspect of this dessert and the male pitch pine cones added a pop of umami and sweetness to an otherwise bright, slightly sour dessert.

I hope you guys give this one a try. I really enjoyed eating this dessert as much as I

enjoyed making it.

Here is a video of me making it!

Ingredients:

Filling:

• 340g fresh cranberries.

• A little leftover cranberry sauce, (~50g).

• The juice of one orange and.

• 14g, the zest of the orange 14g.

• 45g, spruce needles.

• 21g, spicebush flowers preserved in sugar.

• 1T of duck fat.

• 30g of Sambuca

• 60g sugar.

• About 21 candied female pitch pine cones for decoration.

• About 12 small bunches of candied norwegian spruce tips for decoration.

  
  

Crust

• 240g all purpose flour

• 160g tallow

• 80g water

• Pinch of salt

  
  

Method

1. In a Large bowl begin the filling.

   1. (Chop the orange zest and spruce needles in a tablespoon of sugar before adding to the bowl)

   2. Combine the fresh cranberries, cranberry sauce, orange juice and zest, spruce needles, spicebush flowers, duck fat, sambuca, and sugar.

   3. Gently mash the cranberries with a heavy instrument. I used a marble rolling pin.

   4. Leave filling to macerate while you make the pastry.

2. To make the pastry,

   1. In a large bowl add the flour, tallow, water and salt.

   2. Rub and squeeze the ingredients until a cohesive dough has formed.

   3. Chill dough for 30 minutes in the fridge, or until firm.

3. To make the pie,

   1. Roll out the chilled pastry on a well floured counter.

   2. Line a 9 inch pie plate or tart pan with the pastry.

   3. Fill with the cranberry mixture

   4. Decoration artfully with the female Pitch Pinecones and the Spruce tips.

   5. Bake at 425 F for 30-45 minutes or until the filling is vigorously bubbling.

4. Serve with vanilla ice cream garnished with candied male pitch pine cones.