This Cranberry Tart Couldn’t Be Easier

The perfect Thanksgiving dessert during a pandemic is unusual enough to feel special, but as easy as possible – and delicious – as possible. This year, more than ever before, you deserve freedom from complicated recipes that give disappointing results. You deserve the cranberry tartine.

As the name suggests, this holiday dessert consists of whole cranberries and butter caramel, topped with puff pastry and baked. If this combination sounds strange, trust me: it works . Ultra-tart cranberry juices offset sweet caramel to the point where the first bite hardly tastes sweet. Of course, the sweetness is still felt, but it is much richer and more complex than you would expect from mixing natural warheads with a bunch of melted sugar. The description of desserts “in an adult way” always seems to me snob and uninformative, but this is a rare exception. With a perfectly balanced, sweet-tart-bitter flavor profile and amazing serving – have a portion of this great sauce! – the cranberry tart tart is a perfectly elegant addition to your Thanksgiving table.

Plus it’s incredibly simple. If you have sugar, butter and salt on hand, you can buy frozen puff pastry and whole cranberries. There is also no cleansing, coring, partial boiling and general fuss associated with traditional apple tart-tatin. Once you’ve made a simple caramel – which I promise you will – the rest of the recipe will be a clean build.

Before you run away screaming, let’s talk about this caramel. If all your previous efforts have ended in solid, crystallized disaster, it is not you – it is water. Most starter caramel recipes are “wet,” which means they add a small amount of water to the sugar before cooking. This is supposed to help the sugar dissolve and cook evenly, but if the water boils before the sugar is completely dissolved, it will crystallize. If you’re trying to dissolve a bunch of sugar in a literal splash of water, it’s very easy to do.

It is almost impossible to spoil dry caramel. You pour the sugar into a dry skillet and cook over moderate heat until it is runny and caramelized. There is no water here, so you don’t have to worry about the sugar dissolving – it just has to melt, which it does on its own. Dry caramel won’t crystallize no matter how much you stir it, and it won’t burn if you don’t heat it like a real ding-dong. (Don’t be ding-dong.) This is the only way I make caramel now. Try it and you will transform too.

Cranberry tartin tart

Before you start, double check to see if you have a plate or platter large enough to flip the pie onto. As written, this recipe is perfect for an eight- or nine-inch stainless steel, cast iron or nonstick skillet suitable for oven use. If your skillet is 10-12 inches, double everything except the puff pastry.

• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar, cut into pieces
• 3 tablespoons salted or unsalted butter, cold from refrigerator
• 2 tablespoons cold water
• 1/4 teaspoon table salt
• 4-5 cups (1 12 oz. Bag) cranberries, thaw frozen
• 1 sheet of frozen puff pastry, thawed
• Vanilla ice cream or whipped cream with whipped cream, to serve

Preheat oven to 425ºF. If you forget to defrost the puff pastry, put it in the microwave for 10-15 seconds and place it on the counter while you cook the caramel.

To make caramel, pour one cup of sugar into an eight- or nine-inch ovenproof pan over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally with a heat-resistant spatula or metal spoon to break up any lumps, until you have a pan full of golden yellow liquid sugar. This should take about five minutes, but the exact time will depend on your stove and pan.

When the sugar is completely melted, reduce heat to low and cook until the caramel is darker to your liking. (The longer it cooks, the less sweet it will be: I like the bitter hue of the nearly burnt caramel, but aim for a lighter brown if you prefer more sweetness.) Remove the caramel from heat when it’s a few shades too. light; it will continue to cook over the residual heat.

Add cold oil immediately. It will bubble a lot, so watch your fingers. When the oil is completely mixed, mix gently with water, again ignoring splashes. Finally, add salt. Swirl the hot caramel to coat the sides of the pan, add the cranberries and gently press down with a spoon. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup sugar on top.

Unroll the puff pastry and put on the berries. Gently tuck the corners and edges into the skillet, which will still be quite hot. Place the skillet on a baking sheet, transfer to the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes. The dough should be sharply airy and golden brown, and the fruit below should be bubbling.

Chill in skillet for at least 15 minutes before turning onto serving platter. Scrape off any remaining caramel in the pan from the top. Serve immediately with plenty of ice cream or whipped cream, or both.