I personally think cranberries are meant to be made into curd, like a match made in heaven. When the first cranberries showed up in Trader Joes a couple of weeks ago, I snapped them up, couldn’t wait to make some. They also speak fall, and the holidays, to me. And for some reason, this year, I am more than ready for all of it!

So I’ve posted this cranberry curd recipe before, so follow the link for the filling of this tart. The cranberries I bought were a really deep, dark ruby red, which you can see in the color of the curd as well. I still think the added orange juice and zest to complement the cranberries make for a gorgeous flavor.

But I will give you a little scoop on the extra bits I did to make it into a beautiful curd tart:

  • The crust is a Biscoff cookie crust, which works beautifully with the cranberry curd. I used just the crust from Alyssa at therecipecritic.com. And I made just two small four-inch tarts, so half of the usual recipe (which would make a 9-inch pie). So all it took was 1 cup crushed Biscoff cookie, half of a 1/3 cup of light brown sugar, and 2 and 1/2 tablespoons of melted butter. Form your tart shells and bake for 7-8 minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit and that’s it!
  • For the flourishes on top, I made a simple whipped cream with a little of the cranberry curd mixed in so it has just the slightest pink hue and cranberry flavor in it, but creamy. Nothing sophisticated here – simple whipped cream (maybe 1/2 a cup), with a couple of tablespoons powdered sugar (to taste), a tablespoon-ish of cranberry curd, mix to firm peaks. Then just put it into a piping bag with a star tip (or whatever tip you prefer), and pipe wherever the spirit moves you!
  • If you just pipe the few dots on top that I did, you’ll have plenty of whipped cream left over. However, you can always use more of that up when you serve up the slices – doesn’t hurt to add a little extra whipped cream on each plate.
  • I also made some sugared cranberries and thin orange slices (and cut the orange slices down to triangle segments to put a couple of the top of each tart). For that, I used Natasha’s recipe over at Natasha’s Kitchen. I used the same amounts in her recipe, so I could do both cranberries and throw in about 5 thin orange slices as well.
  • The final touch was to cut up a few Biscoff cookies into small triangles to set on top (cutting them very gently, so they don’t completely fall apart). But you can also use the extra crumbs to just sprinkle them over the top at the very end.

And that’s pretty much it – eat within a day or so; the longer the curd sits in the crust, the softer the crust will get. It’s a little crumbly crust, but I like that about it.

When you get the spicy cookie, tart cranberry and creaminess of the whipped topping – it’s just a lovely bite to have for afternoon tea!

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