Tea-Infused Cranberry Curd Christmas Tart

Last months post showcased how to cook with tea and take your Thanksgiving Turkey to the next level by brining it with tea leaves. The recipe called for using Lapsang Souchong to add a smokiness to it, but I chose Yunnan Golden Buds (a favorite) and used those instead. I received comments asking for the recipe I served for dessert which was a Tea Infused Cranberry Curd Tart, so I thought that Decembers post would perfect for that and a great way to liven up your holiday table with something seriously easy, tasty and tea infused.

I originally found the recipe on Americas Test Kitchen and then decided to amend it. This is one of the easies desserts I’ve ever made and its delicious! Below is my version of their version. I also made mine in individual tartlet pans for each person instead of a larger one. I used the same Yunnan Golden Buds brewed tea, but Ive also made this with other types which were just as good: Assam; Kenya Black and even our Cape Cod Cranberry Orange Blend. There recipe is below and my changes are in BOLD ITALICS.

Hope you enjoy this tea-infused treat for Winter Solstice, Christmas, New Years or just because! Scroll down to find tea suggestions to pair with this along with a holiday movie that might go nicely with it as well. Snuggle up, pop on a movie, eat your tart and sip some tea!

– The Chief Leaf
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ATK’s CRANBERRY CURD TART

By Lan Lam
Serves: 8
Time: 1½ hours, plus 4 hours resting

TIPS:

• Use 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom for this recipe.
• It’s strongly recommend to weigh the almond flour and cornstarch for the crust.
• If preferred, you can use a stand mixer or handheld mixer to whip the cream.
• The tart crust will be firm if you serve the tart on the day that it’s made; if you prefer a more tender crust, make the tart up to two days ahead.
• ATK tips on how to pipe the whipped cream into decorative patterns, see below.

FILLING INGREDIENTS:

• 1 pound (454 grams; 4 cups) fresh or frozen cranberries 
• 1 ¼ cups (8¾ ounces; 248 grams) plus 1 tablespoon sugar, divided (I reduced the sugar to 3/4c and added pure maple syrup to taste as it cooked down)
• ½ cup water (substitute brewed black tea for water)
• Pinch table salt
• 3 large egg yolks 
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces and softened (KerryGold Butter)
• Grated orange peel (not in the original recipe but adds so much interest)

CRUST INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup (4 ounces; 113 grams) almond flour
• ½ cup (2 ounces; 57 grams) cornstarch 
• ⅓ cup (2⅓ ounces; 66 grams) sugar 
• ½ teaspoon table salt 
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• ¾ teaspoon almond extract
• 1 cup heavy cream 
• ½ cup walnuts and pecans, chopped and toasted (not in the original recipe)

MAKING THE PUREE FILLING:

1. Bring cranberries, orange peel, sugar, tea or water and salt to boil in medium saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally.
2. Adjust heat to maintain very gentle simmer.
3. Cover and cook until all cranberries have burst and started to shrivel, about 10 minutes.
4. While cranberries cook, whisk egg yolks and cornstarch in bowl until smooth.
5. Transfer hot cranberry mixture to food processor.
6. Immediately add yolk mixture and process until smooth (small flecks of cranberry skin will be visible), about 1 minute, scraping down sides of bowl as necessary.
7. Let mixture cool in processor bowl until skin forms and mixture registers 120 to 125 degrees, 45 minutes to 1 hour.
8. While mixture cools, make crust.

MAKING THE CRUST: 

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Whisk flour, cornstarch, sugar, and salt in bowl until well combined.
3. Add melted butter and almond extract and stir with wooden spoon until uniform dough forms.
4. Crumble two-thirds of mixture over bottom of 9-inch tart pan with removable bottom.
5. Press dough to even thickness in bottom of pan.
6. Crumble remaining dough and scatter evenly around edge of pan.
7. Press crumbled dough into sides of pan. Press edges to even thickness.
8. Place pan on rimmed baking sheet and bake until crust is golden brown, about 20 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking.

BACK TO THE PUREE:

1. Add softened butter to cranberry puree and process until fully combined, about 30 seconds.
2. Strain mixture through fine-mesh strainer set over bowl, pressing on solids with rubber spatula to extract puree.
3. Transfer 2 tablespoons puree to medium bowl, then stir in cream and remaining 1 tablespoon sugar or maple syrup
4. Cover and refrigerate.
5. Before putting puree into crust, sprinkle toasted nuts on bottom.
6. Pour/Transfer puree to crust (it’s OK if crust is still warm) and smooth into even layer.
7. Let tart sit at room temperature for at least 4 hours. (Cover tart with large bowl and refrigerate after 4 hours if making ahead.)

WHIPPED CREAM DECORATING: 

• I added a touch of vanilla extract and maple syrup to the cream instead of the reserved puree to add to have a light cranberry cream flavor. I also used an electric mixer to beat into stiff peaks.
• Transfer to pastry bag fitted with pastry tip.
• Pipe decorative border around edge of tart.
• Transfer any remaining whipped cream to small serving bowl.

6 TEA PAIRING SUGGESTIONS:

You can’t go wrong with a perfect single origin black tea. The astringency from the black tea is cut by the tart/sweetness and is heavenly. Our Ceylon from Sri Lanka is stunning! Or try a Wuyi Dark Oolong for a real treat! Our Cape Cod Blend is also a delight with this lovely, easy-to-make dessert!

1. Assam (North India)
2. Ceylon TGOP (Sri Lanka)
3. Nilgiri (South India)
4. Sir Walter Scottish Blend (India/China Blend)
5. Wuyi Dark Roasted Oolong (China)
6. Cape Cod Cranberry Orange Blend

6 CHRISTMAS MOVIES TO: “EAT A SLICE OF TEA-INFUSED CRANBERRY TART WITH A CUPPA PEARL FINE TEAS” SUGGESTIONS:

1. The Holiday (2006) with Kate, Cameron, Jack and Jude (Amazon Prime or Lifetime)
2. The Shop Around the Corner (1940) with Jimmy Steward and Margaret Sullavan (HBOMax)
3. A Christmas Carol (1938) with Reginal Owen (Max, Hulu, Prime, Apple TV)
4. The Christmas Chronicles (2018) with Kurt Russell (Netflix)
5. The Family Man (2000) with Nicholas Cage and Tea Leoni (Prime, E!, Bravo)
6. Elf (2003) with Will Ferrell (Hulu, Max Amazon Channel, and Paramount+, Apple TV )

Halloween Candy or Tea Brack?

_{Tea Brack infused with Sir Walter Scottish Tea}

Tough choice? Not for us!

First… Happy Halloween! We like this “holiday” and it’s not because of candy. The tradition is so deep and interesting and we dug in to find that tea is a part of it in some parts of the world, namely Ireland. We’d actually love for this to be a National Holiday with an official day off. Let’s lobby for that.

The last time I posted was Christmas. And here we are with only 55 days till this years Christmas. (Insert cliche: time flies). But before we officially tip into that season, which for us starts at 12:01am (check our website for new blends) we have to enjoy THIS season, or rather… today.

If you have followed us on Instagram or stopped by a market you may have seen our newest TeaLeaf Methi in our “Tea of Day” Stories or holding down the tent at the Fresh Farm Dupont Circle Market. After spending a few years in Africa she is back for a while before heading off to India and I thought it might be nice to fold her into the TeaLove blog and do a cameo. She was up to the challenge! Below is a very nice recipe for Tea Brack and a really great alternative to having candy with your afternoon tea. For us, its a no brainer. Anything with tea is our cuppa. No judgements if you choose the former, but we’re TeaCentric over here.

Please enjoy our first post of 2023 and if you make the Tea Brack, please tag us so we can see how yours turned out.

– Chief Leaf

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Hello! Methi here. It’s Halloween! The pinnacle of the spooky season and one of my favorite holidays of the year. I enjoy getting into the spirit by re-watching classics like Hocus Pocus and The Nightmare Before Christmas. (The Chief Leaf is partial to The Great Pumpkin.) While dressing up as my favorite characters, putting up decorations, and chomping on candy are always fun, this year I looked into the origins of the holiday to find more sustainable ways to celebrate. 

Halloween, as we know it, comes from All Hallows Eve, which is always celebrated on October 31^st, the day before the Western Christian All Saints Day. This day marked the first day of Allhallowtide, a season in the liturgical calendar that was dedicated to the remembrance of the deceased, especially martyrs and saints. All Hallows Eve coincided with the Celtic pre-Christian festival, Samhain (pronounced SAH-win), a pagan harvest festival celebrated from October 31^st – November 1^st. Samhain celebrated the change of the seasons.  It was believed that during this time that the barrier between the human world and the spirit world thinned, and thus the practice of wearing costumes was adopted to avoid recognition by a traveling soul. Like All Hallows Eve, Samhain also has strong connections with honoring the ancestors and the deceased.

If you are looking for a truly traditional Halloween treat to bring to enjoy on Halloween, we have it. The Pearl Fine Tea’s motto is: “tea cures everything.” We know this. The Irish knew this too. Maybe that’s why they invented Tea Brack (sometimes known as Barmbrack), a delicious sweet bread made with dried fruits and black tea. This speckled sweet bread is customarily made only on Halloween in Ireland and is a party trick and a dessert all in one simple loaf. 

Usually, the baker would sneak in a ring (and sometimes other oddly specific yet symbolic items) into the batter, and whoever found the ring when the loaf was sliced was thought to be lucky and would marry within the year. 

Old-school symbolic items to be mixed into a Tea Brack loaf:
• A bean: poverty for life 
• A coin: wealth or good fortune 
• A matchstick: an unhappy marriage 
• A pea: will not marry in a year 
• A piece of cloth: bad luck and poverty 

While I absolutely encourage you to play with your food, it might be a good idea to wrap the ring in some aluminum foil before you drop it into your batter. 

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Pearl Fine Tea’s Recipe for Halloween Irish Tea Brack
Yields one 9×5 inch loaf

Wet Ingredients: 

• ½ cup of black raisins
• ½ cup of golden raisins
• 1 cup of dried cranberries
• ½ cup of dried prunes, quartered
• 300 mL of hot Sir Walter Scottish Blend black tea
• 2/3 cup of brown sugar
• 4 tbsp of melted salted butter 
• 2 eggs
• Zest of one lemon
• Zest of one mandarin orange
• 2-3 tbsp honey for glaze

Dry Ingredients:

• 300 grams of all-purpose flour (roughly 2 cups)
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• Spice blend:
  • 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/8 tsp cardamom powder
  • 1/8 tsp ground ginger
  • 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1/8 tsp ground cloves 
  • 1/8 tsp ground allspice

Directions: 

1. Add the dried fruits to a large mixing bowl and submerge them in 300 mL of hot Sir Walter Scottish Blend black tea. Allow the fruits to soak for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.

2. There may be some liquid left in the bowl once the fruits are soaked. Don’t throw this out! You’ll need it to keep your tea brack batter moist once all the ingredients are combined. 
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a 9×5 inch loaf pan with parchment paper. Set aside. 
4. Once the fruits are fully soaked, add the eggs, melted butter, brown sugar, and zest of the lemon and mandarin orange to the fruit and tea mixture. Mix well until combined.
5. Add the dry ingredients (including the spice blend) to the bowl and stir until a light brown batter is formed. 
6. Pour the mixture into the lined loaf pan and flatten the top. 

7. Bake for 1 hour until the loaf is well risen and golden in color. Check the level of completion with a skewer through the middle of the loaf. If it comes out clean, the tea brack is fully baked. 
8. Brush the top of the loaf with honey to create a glaze. Return the loaf to the oven for 3 minutes to dry the honey glaze.

9. Allow the tea brack to cool for roughly an hour before removing it from the pan and setting it on a wire rack. 
10. Serve the tea brack with butter and a delicious pot or cup of Sir Walter Scottish blend and sit back and enjoy!

Blessed Samhain and Happy Halloween!
~TeaLeaf Methi