Cranberry and white chocolate linzer tart

Yield: 1 Serving

Measure Ingredient
2½ cup Cranberries; fresh or previously frozen and defrosted
¼ cup Fresh orange juice
½ cup Sugar
1 cup Ground blanched almonds
1⅔ cup Unbleached all-purpose flour
½ cup Sugar
½ teaspoon Baking powder
1 teaspoon Ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon Ground mace
½ pounds Cold unsalted butter; cut into 16 pieces
1 large Egg
1 large Egg yolk
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
6 ounces White chocolate; chopped
\N \N Powdered sugar; for dusting

CRANBERRY FILLING

ALMOND COOKIE CRUST

Prepare the filling:

Cook the cranberries, orange juice, and sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat until the mixture comes to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the liquid becomes thick and syrupy, about 10 minutes. The cranberry mixture will have a jamlike consistency. Set aside to cool thoroughly, about 30 minutes. The mixture will thicken to a firm jam when cool.

Position an oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch springform pan.

In the bowl of an electric mixer combine the almonds, flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and mace. Mix on low speed just to blend the ingredients, about 10 seconds. Add the butter and mix until most of the butter pieces are the size of peas, about 1 minute. The mixture will look crumbly and the crumbs will vary in size. With the mixer running, add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla. Mix until the mixture clings together and pulls away from the sides of the bowl, about 30 seconds. Reserve 1 cup of the mixture for the lattice topping and refrigerate it while you prepare the crust.

Press the remaining dough evenly over the bottom and 1¼-inches up the sides of the prepared pan. Sprinkle the white chocolate evenly over the crust. Use a thin metal spatula to spread the cooled cranberry mixture evenly over the white chocolate.

Remove the reserved dough from the refrigerator. Using about 2 tablespoons of dough for the longest ropes and less for the shorter ropes, roll pieces of the dough back and forth to form ropes of dough about ½-inch in diameter. If ropes break, pinch them back together. Put a 9-inch long rope across the middle of the tart. Spacing the ropes about 2-inches apart, place a rope about 8-inches long on either side of the center rope. Place a rope about 4 ½-inches long near each end of the tart. You will have 5 ropes of dough across the top of the tart. Turn the tart pan a half turn and place 5 more ropes evenly over the top of the tart for a lattice pattern. Bake the tart until the top is golden brown, about 1 hour. Cool the tart thoroughly in the pan. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.

Yield: 10 servings

Freezing instructions: Remove the tart from the springform pan and using a wide metal spatula, slide the tart onto a serving plate or aluminum foil-wrapped cardboard cake circle. Or carefully invert the tart onto a flat plate and remove the springform bottom, place a serving plate or cake circle on the bottom to the tart and turn the tart right side up. Wrap the cooked tart tightly with plastic wrap then heavy aluminum foil. Label with date and contents. Freeze up to 2 months.

Defrost the wrapped tart at room temperature.

Contributor: Cooking Live Show #CL9003 Posted to recipelu-digest Volume 01 Number 360 by P&S Gruenwald <sitm@...> on Dec 12, 1997

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