Gingerbread and Cranberry Meringue Tarts

As I sit here eating barley soup I would like to focus on what I’m not doing:

I am not writing a research paper
I am not cobbling together a portfolio
I am not getting high on Sharpie fumes while making a picture book
I am not even lesson planning

I am just sitting here enjoying the quiet in my head. And the barley soup.

Last night I had my last class of the year. Our final project was creating a “big book”, essentially a very large picture book (mine was 13″ x 19″), and an accompanying lesson plan. It was so much fun to see the books my classmates had made, they were so beautiful and creative, and some were just awe-inspiring. Everyone also brought in food and drinks to share. I had been wanting to make these tarts even since Ashley wrote about them on Not Without Salt. I’m so glad I did. Warm and spicy, tart and creamy, light and fluffy, they were a wonderful winter treat*. I had one for breakfast this morning.

Gingerbread and Cranberry Meringue Tart
from Not Without Salt

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Using your favorite gingerbread recipe (I will post my standby very soon)- roll the dough out very thin and gently lay it into mini tart pans.

Bake for 10-12 minutes. Unmold the tarts and let cool.

Bring the oven up to 400° F.

Fill your gingerbread shells with cranberry curd and top with a dollop of meringue (I would have piped the meringue but I couldn’t find my star tip). Bake for 8-10 mintues, or until meringue has browned.

Cranberry Curd
adapted from Nigella Lawson via Not Without Salt

I believe I only used 1-1/3 cups sugar, but you might want to taste it before taking it off the heat. It was late, I was tired, I kind of lost track.

1 pound (5 cups) cranberries
1 cup plus 2 tbsp water
7 tbsp butter
1-1/3 cups sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
6 eggs, lightly beaten

Put the cranberries and water in a pot and cook over low heat until cranberries are soft and begin to pop.

Push cranberries through a fine sieve or a food mill.

Return the puree to the pan. Whisk in the sugar, butter, salt, vanilla, and eggs. Cook over low heat, whisking frequently, until the curd is thick enough to hold marks of the whisk and the first bubbles appear on the surface.

Transfer curd to a bowl and chill, its surface covered with plastic wrap or waxed paper.

French Meringue

the white of one large egg
1/4 cup sugar

Whisk the egg white until soft peaks form.

Slowly whisk in half of the sugar. Continue whisking until the whites form stiff peaks. Fold in the rest of the sugar.

* No only were they delicious, the tarts were a great way to refresh my apartment: when I came home I was worried that it would still reek of Sharpie marker, but instead it smelled of gingerbread, which was a very pleasant surprise.