Cranberry Curd Ginger Snap Tarts

Learn how to make the most delicious cranberry filling that you can use to make tarts made with a ginger snap cookie crust!

For a couple years I had seen the posts on social media, showing beautiful pies that were made with cranberry curd. I simply could not sit by anymore and not make some for myself. Instead of just doing a standard pie crust, I went to what I love best - a ginger snap crust. Plus I thought the perfect thing for my family would be to make these individual tarts for each member of our family to enjoy.

How to Make the Cranberry Curd

Let's start with learning how to make the cranberry curd. Here are the ingredients I use:

• 12 ounces fresh cranberries
• 1 cup sugar
• ½ cup fresh orange juice, water, or ginger ale
• zest of 1 orange
• 8 tablespoons butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 egg yolks

If you have tried to make a lemon curd before like I have, I can tell you that it's so much easier to be successful with a cranberry curd. The reason is that cranberries are loaded with pectin. This is what will help make the curd solid. You will be amazed at how easy this is.

The process begins with bringing the cranberries, sugar, orange zest and liquid of choice to a simmer. You can just use water to make the curd and it will be delicious. You can add more depth to the flavor but using orange juice or ginger ale instead of the water. It's your choice.

Then you just need to cook that for about 10 minutes in which the sugar will melt in and the cranberries will have time to pop and release their pectin.

Then it's pureeing time. I use an immersion blender but you could also use a food processor. Or you could just use a potato masher. You just need to smash those berries.

Then you put it all through a sieve to remove the skins. I put the sieve over a large enough mixing bowl. This will make your sauce smooth.

So at this point you actually have just made cranberry sauce. It's the same process I make my homemade jelled cranberry sauce.

Your taking that sauce and enhancing it. It starts with adding in butter.

Once you do that, you need to set it aside and get a separate bowl. It's important the bowl needs to be large enough to fit all your ingredients without risk spilling it. You will use eggs and egg yolk.

Then you want to get your pot back out that you used to cook the cranberries. You want to cook the heat over low heat until it's almost bubbling and thickening.

The best way to know if the curd is done is to check it's temperature. You want to hit 170 degrees. I love using a thermometer as it takes all the guess work out. Check out a podcast episode on Why a Thermometer Will Save You Money.

Place the curd into a container and put in the fridge until cool before using it for the tarts. I would give it a couple hours. It will be thick when it's fully cooled.

How to Make the Ginger Snap Crust

Here is what you need to make the ginger snap crust, starting with the ingredients:

• 6 ounces ginger snap cookies
• 1 tbsp dark brown sugar
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 ounce butter melted

If you are into crushing things this recipe is perfect for you! You already crushed the cranberries and now you get to crush the ginger snap cookies.

Crush the cookies in a zip top bag with whatever heavy thing you have at your disposal. You want the cookies to be a fine crumb. Once you did that, you are adding in some brown sugar, ground ginger, and melted butter.

Mix that all together. And press firmly into the bottom of your tart pans. I have 6 mini tart pans that I use but you could just do it all in one tart pan or one pie pan.

Now bake the tarts at 350 degree oven for 5 to 7 minutes, just until it's started to brown some. Allow to cool completely.

Now all you need to do is spoon in the cranberry curd and it's time for dessert!

More Cranberries Recipes

Got some leftover cranberries are giving this recipe a try. Here some more recipes you could make.

• Sous Vide Cranberry Sauce
• Homemade Jellied Cranberry Sauce
• No Sugar Added Cranberry Applesauce
• Spiced Cranberry Sauce

Those are just to wet your appetite, I also have a post on 47 Uses for Fresh Cranberries to give you a full gamut of options.