Cranberry Curd Tart with Cornflake Crust Recipe

This recipe for cranberry curd tart is a twist on the New York Times’ Cooking tried-and-true version that uses ground hazelnuts for the crust. I wanted to keep the seasonal pairing with a more accessible but unique crust. Voilá:  cornflake crumbs. The crust comes together like a graham cracker but has a rustic presentation and rich corn flavor. It mellows the bright cranberry flavor but you still get that buttery, creamy crumb.

Tips for making the NYT Cranberry Curd Tart

• This recipe is technically gluten free. But if guests cringe from the word as if it means health food, you don’t have to tell them. 
• There are a few ingredients that I love and swear by, one of them is what I call “The Good Butter”. It’s Challenge butter with the deer on the front. I find it to be fresher tasting than store brand, and this recipe has a whole stick in the curd and most of a stick in the crust, so it’s butter-forward. (Told you it’s not health food.)
• It has a lot of steps, so I recommend that you process the cranberries a day or two and even a week in advance of making/serving the tart. 
• I learned the hard way that once the heated curd comes off the stove, it forms a skin very quickly and for the pretty smooth sheen, you have to either get it in the cooled pie shell right away or cover the skin of the curd with cellophane so that “skin” doesn’t form. (It doesn’t incorporate back in very well and the lumps will become obvious.)
• We found that the finished tart actually tasted better the next day and even the next: less cranberry bite with a buttery flavor overall.

How to process the cranberries

• For fresh raw crans, wash them and put them directly in a sauce pot with about one cup of water. For frozen, thaw the bag on a plate for about an hour on the counter. Then add to pot with water.
• Set heat to medium. Add 1 c of orange juice and 1 c of sugar to the pot with cranberries.
• Cook til the cranberries have popped and become thick, about 12 minutes. Remove from heat. While it cools, prepare a fine-mesh sieve over a bowl in the sink. 
• Add cranberry puree to a blender and puree until there’s not a sign of a whole cranberry left. 
• Then pour the blended mixture over the sieve and press with the back of a wooden spoon or the curved part of a ladle. Let this sit over the bowl for several minutes. When you’ve extracted all you can, leaving the skins and seeds in the sieve, run a spatula along the underside of the sieve to get the blend that’s clinging under there  into the bowl. Set aside.
• This processed cranberry sauce is delicious on its own and can rest, chilled in the fridge up to two weeks.

How to make the crust

• I bought premade cornflake crumbs, but you can always process plain (not Frosted Flakes, too sweet) cornflakes and get the same result. 
• Use softened butter instead of melted. It helps keep the finished crust crisp rather than dense.
• Preheat oven to 350F. Combine ¾ of a stick (⅓ c) of butter with 1 c of cornflake crumbs, 1 T of sugar,  and ½ c of almond flour. If you used unsalted butter, add ⅛ teaspoon of salt. Combine well with a fork until it looks like sand. 
• With clean hands, add to your tart dish and press to form. My pan is 10 inches, so it only went about halfway up the sides. 
• Bake about 8 minutes. You want it to stay golden, just darken it a little. Set aside to cool completely.

How to make the cranberry curd

• If your blended and strained cranberry mixture has been chilling in the fridge like mine was, add it to a sauce pan and reheat on low. If not and it’s still in your bowl, scrape this into a medium saucepan; the same one you cooked the cranberries in will work fine. 
• Separate your eggs (2 whole, 2 yolks) and whisk until frothy. Set aside. 
• Melt a stick of butter in the microwave and pour slowly into your sauce pan of cranberry, whisking gently until fully incorporated. 
• To temper the eggs: have your whisk at the ready. Transfer about ½ c of the butter-cranberry goo into your bowl of eggs, whisking rapidly. (This prevents the warm goo from “cooking” your eggs.) Combine, whisking without stopping, then transfer this back into the sauce pan where the rest of the butter-cranberry mixture is waiting. Continue whisking on med-low heat.
• Stir frequently as this mixture thickens and heats through, about 10 mins. 
• We want this to cool but not become TOO cool. If you are setting this aside to finish baking later, cover the surface of the curd with cellophane so a skin doesn’t form. This is basically homemade cranberry flavored pudding at this point and like I said above, I didn’t move quick enough and you can see the little lumps of “skin” that wouldn’t mix back in properly. It will taste the same, but not be pristine.
• Once your crust is cool and you curd is room temp, scrape the curd into the crust and bake about 8 to 11 mins at 350F, just enough to set the curd.

Cutting, serving, and storing

• Cool the tart to room temp and then chill for about an hour in the fridge. This helps the filling firm up, making it easier to slice cleanly.
• Use a large, sharp chef’s knife to make the cuts. 
• Clean and wipe the knife blade between cuts. 
• Use a pie server or offset spatula to help lift and remove each slice away from the rest of the tart.

Scroll down to see the recipe card with concise ingredients and steps.

The bottom line

I fell in love with the vibrant red of this tart immediately. It tastes just as vibrant too: reminiscent of a bright lemon curd but with the seasonally lovely cranberry flavor. My version has a rustic cornflake crumb crust that I think balances that acidic cranberry very well. It mellows beautifully the next day; try it cold and room temp and see which you like better.

Here is a gift link to the NYT recipe for Cranberry Curd Tart if you’d like to try this with the hazelnut crust in all its glory.