Cranberry Meringue Pie

Cheery dessert for the festive season

I’m someone who is heavily inspired by what I see at the local market or in grocery stores. Seasonal fruit, fresh herbs and wonky looking vegetables. With Christmas right around the corner, the appearance of fresh cranberries in the market got my creative juices flowing. Deep red and lip-smackingly tart, they instantly bring to mind holly berries and Christmas time. So versatile with that natural pop red, whether in mulled wine, jelly, or wrapped around a ball of soft chevre on a cheeseboard. Yum.

Cranberries are like any other ultra tart fruit/ vegetable, to which when you add a little bit of sugar, they transform into candy. Think, rhubarb, quince, roselle, limes. Like a well-synchronised choir, they hit all the right notes on the palate- nature’s popping candy. A league apart from the horrid cough syrup-like juice sold in cartons.

Interestingly enough, the word “cranberry” comes from the word “crane-berry”, because the pretty pink cranberry blossoms, resemble the head of a crane.

Image 1 Source Image 2 Source

Among it’s many other fun-facts, according to this article I came across, cranberries have several air pockets in them, that help them bounce!

“When you drop a fresh ripe raw cranberry it should bounce a few inches off the ground. This discovery was made by Job “Peg Leg” Webb, a New Jersey cranberry grower in the 1880s.

The bounce in cranberries can be used to test the freshness and quality of the fruits to determine the varieties to be packed raw and the ones to be processed. This also means that damaged cranberries don’t bounce.”

You best believe I tested it out.

Can we call this a bounce?

This pie is nothing revolutionary, and the cranberries do most of the work for me, with that striking colour. Ultra-tart cranberry curd (that I’d say is even simpler to make than lemon curd) in a buttery salted crust, with fluffy toasted meringue. The dough I use here is the tweaked version of a pâte à foncer that I’ve used to line thousands of tarts with while working at my first bakery in Paris. Candy-like sugared cranberries, and rosemary for effect. Simple. Festive as ever.

Side note: This curd can be used interchangeably with lemon curd practically everywhere, whether its a pavlova, sandwiched between cake layers, or simply bottled up as party favours. The sugar in the recipe however, is ideal for this tart, accounting for the sweetness of the meringue. If you’d like to bottle it as is, I’d suggest upping the sugar by around 15g at the compote stage.

Follow along for the whole recipe. Read it in it’s entirety before getting started for max efficiency :)

Cranberry Meringue Pie

Makes 1x 18cm diameter tart (for 4 people)

Ingredients

For the pie dough

100g all-purpose flour

80g butter, cold and cubed

1.5g salt

4g caster sugar

15g milk, cold

For the sugared cranberries

A handful of fresh cranberries, rinsed

100g caster sugar

50g water

Finer granulated sugar to coat

For the cranberry curd

150g fresh cranberries, rinsed

70g caster sugar

60g water

35g lemon juice

Zest of 1 lemon

1 egg yolk

1 tbsp all-purpose flour

20g caster sugar

20g butter

For the italian meringue

55g egg whites (around 2 eggs)

110g caster sugar

27g water

Pinch of cream of tartar

½ tsp vanilla extract

Fresh sprigs of rosemary to decorate

Directions

For the pie dough

1. Mix flour, salt and sugar together. Dump the butter in all at once and press them into flakes using the flour. Rub the mixture gently using your fingertips, till most of the flour mixture has been absorbed by the butter, maintaining some flakes of butter throughout.

2. Add the milk bit by bit and knead gently till it forms a cohesive dough. Shape into a flattened disk and wrap in plastic. Chill in the refrigerator for 30 min-1 hour.

3. Grease an 18cm tart pan. Roll out the dough out uniformly dusting with flour where required, aiming for a 2.5-3mm thickness. Lift the dough from the countertop and gently let it drop a few times, to release any tension from the rolling out the dough, to avoid shrinkage.

4. Line the tart case, prick all over using a fork, and leave in the freezer for 10-15 min till rock-hard, while the oven preheats.

5. Pre-heat the oven to 160˚C.

6. Bake for 15-18 minutes until its golden and leaves the sides of the tart case. Let it cool completely.

For the sugared cranberries

1. While the pie dough chills, move on to the sugared cranberries.

2. Place the sugar and water in a saucepan until the sugar is completely melted.

3. Turn off the heat, add the cranberries, and toss to coat with the syrup. Leave aside for 10 min.

4. Take the cranberries using a fork and onto a piece of parchment, making sure to avoid them touching one another. Bottle the remaining syrup for other utilities i.e. cocktails, tea, punch, etc.

5. Let syrup-coated cranberries dry uncovered for 1 hour.

6. After an hour, drop them into a bowl of sugar and agitate till each cranberry is uniformly coated in sugar.

7. Place on a piece of parchment to dry out completely 1-2 hours. The sugar should have dried, and the cranberries crunchy when eaten.

8. Use to decorate the tart, or as a treat. For best results, store them in a sealed box in the fridge.

For the cranberry curd

1. Start by making a compote with the fresh cranberries. In a saucepan, add cranberries with sugar, water, lemon juice and lemon zest.

2. Cook until the cranberries start bursting, breaking down, and finally thicken up into a jammy consistency, the sugar completely melted.

3. Blitz and strain into a clean saucepan. Put it back on low heat, stirring from time to time.

4. In a small bowl, whisk together sugar, flour, and egg yolk till no lumps remain.

5. When the cranberry compote starts to slightly sputter, take off the heat and add ½ compote into the egg mixture, whisking till smooth. Pour all of the egg mix back into the saucepan and continue whisking till it thickens and coats the back of a spoon without dripping.

6. Take off the heat, add the butter and blitz using a stick blender till aerated and no pieces of butter remain. Store in a clean jar, plastic film touching the surface of the curd. Store in the fridge till cool and ready to assemble the tart.

For the italian meringue & assembly

1. When both the tart case and cranberry curd have completely cooled down, it’s time to assemble. Gently place the tart case on a flat plate, it is quite fragile as is.

2. Spoon the curd into the empty tart and smoothen it out till uniformly levelled.

3. Place in the fridge to harden slightly, as you prepare the meringue.

4. Place caster sugar and water in a saucepan on medium heat.

5. In the bowl of a stand mixer, or in a bowl with high walls using an electric whisk, add the egg whites and cream of tartar. If you don’t have cream of tartar, you can completely skip it, or add a few drops of fresh lemon juice. This is to help stabilize the whites.

6. Once the sugar is melted, place a sugar thermometer to keep a check on the temperature.

7. Alongside, start mixing the egg whites on the lowest speed/ very gently till frothy. If the whites are too less for the stand mixer, you can either whisk them a little by hand to help kick start the foam, so the stand mixer can reach the egg, or increase the speed to max, monitoring closely, till it reaches a foamy texture.

8. Bring the syrup up to 118˚C and increase the speed of the mixer for the egg whites till it just about begins to form soft peaks. When the syrup is at 121˚C, take off the heat, wait for the bubbles to dissipate slightly/ reduce in size, 10-15 seconds, and reducing the speed of the mixer, stream in the syrup. When halfway through, increase the speed a little. And when all of the syrup has been added, hike the speed up to max. Continue whisking till the sides of the mixing bowl are not hot to touch, the meringue has nicely thickened up, is glossy and holding stiff peaks. Reduce speed, but continue mixing on low till ready to pipe.

9. In the meanwhile, prep a piping bag with a Saint Honoré nozzle.

10. Towards the end of the mixing, add the vanilla extract. When the mixing bowl is cool/ room temperature, stop whisking.

11. Pipe the meringue over the cooled tart. I piped a ring of squiggles around the edges. Using a blow torch, toast the surface of the meringue all over.

12. Decorate with the sugared cranberries and fresh sprigs of rosemary.

13. For best results, chill for at least 1 hour, slice up and enjoy.

14. The pie stays fresh in a sealed box in the fridge for up to 2 days, after which I find that the crust becomes soft and the meringue starts to weep into the curd.

Thank you for reading!