TWD ~ Cranberry Crackle Tart

TWD ~ Cranberry Crackle Tart

This Thanksgiving was all about breaking with tradition! My son and daughter-in-law were not coming to NJ for Thanksgiving this year, and asked us to join them in Florida to celebrate Turkey Day! My other son thought this also sounded good. So, I thought, why not change things up a bit this year? Letting go!!

This was a huge shake up! I’ve been hosting Thanksgiving Dinner for almost 40 years in my home. I’ve seen many changes through the years, and cooked my share of turkeys! This year there would only be seven of us! That meant less food, and the men (under my son’s supervision) fried the turkey. I was totally surprised at how quick and delicious this method was. Letting go!! We decided two pies were enough! Of course, we had to have our beloved pumpkin pie! My grandson and his mom took care of that! So pretty and delicious! But you’ll have to take my word! I wasn’t able to get any photos before it was gone!

  

Amazingly delectable…a new tradition in my house! 

Traditionally I bake a cheesecake, and an apple pie, in addition to the pumpkin pie. However, this year I chose to go with a totally untraditional tart, picked by our TWD group!  I made this wonderfully delicious tart for Thanksgiving, and this was the first moment I had to blog about it! We drove to Florida from Georgia on Tuesday, then spent Wednesday baking, and getting ready for the feast!

I made my crust before we left NJ, and froze it. That made the tart assembly quite easy! First, I rolled out the dough, and blind baked it! I had no pie weights with me, so I used rice…it worked great!  I remembered to bring my hand held beater, and although it seemed to take longer than usual to beat the egg whites to soft fluffy peaks…it worked!  Fold in the fresh cranberries and bake! It was amazing! I loved this tart, and know that no matter where we have Thanksgiving next year (I’m thinking it will be at my house in NJ) this will be a new Thanksgiving tradition! Ok, I haven’t totally let go!!  Hope everyone had a marvelous holiday! 

As a side note…my area of NJ was hit with an early snowstorm, leaving about 7 inches of heavy, wet snow behind, and a loss of power for 24 hours! Providence or what?

If you’d like to bake this wonderful tart for yourself, it can be found in Dorie Greenspans new cookbook, Baking Chez Moi. Dorie has also posted the recipe on her blog, you can also find it there. To see what the other members of TWD thought of this tart, check it out here.   

Tart crust, baked and spread with my homemade raspberry jam and the beaten egg whites with the cranberries folded in

 Sorry to say not too many photos…This one was taken the next day…still so good!

The turkey fryers

So….how many men does it take to fry a turkey?

The fried turkey….scrumptious!