I was excited when I read through the recipe, because it sounded like a version of a pavlova. I have a friend from New Zealand who makes me "a pav" every few years when I manage to swing a visit , because I love it so. Tart cranberries mixed into what looks like a pav-ish meringue topping? Yes, please!
The Sweet Tart Dough was easy to handle. I love Dorie's suggestion to roll out pie dough while it's still soft, and then refrigerate or freeze it. I used this method on her galette dough recipe for my Thanksgiving pies (we celebrated last weekend), and it worked beautifully. Unfortunately, I didn't love the actual flavor of the crust as much as my standard pie dough, which comes from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. His dough is a BEAST to work with, and absolutely was too crumbly to cooperate with Dorie's rolling-while-soft technique. We preferred the flavor and texture of the crust of the one pie that got the Bittman treatment, which made me sad, because I'd make pies a lot more often if a recipe that's as easy to use as Dorie's galette recipe produced my perfect crust. I've wandered off on a tangent. Where was I? Oh yeah...
Pre-baked sweet tart dough crust, then a layer of strawberry jam, topped with the cranberry-jeweled meringue. I was afraid that my meringue wasn't going to cover the surface area, but it turned out to be the exact right amount. Bake it for an hour until it's peaks turn beautifully golden, and voila! Fairly easy for an impressive looking dessert.
I loved it. This one has definitely earned a spot in our Fall/Winter holiday repertoire.
I loved that this was so tasty yet so light too! We ate it after a baked ham dinner so it was perfect!
ReplyDeleteI'll give the Bittman dough a try after I work through my frozen Dorie sweet tart dough stash. I love all his bread recipes, why not try the pastry?
ReplyDeleteFair warning that it is very dry and crumbly (even though I add more ice water than he say), and is very uncooperative to work with. It inevitably leaves me cursing. The end product is buttery, flaky, and delicious, though.
DeleteThis is quite like pavlova isn't it? Your tart looks like it got some great color.
ReplyDeleteI loved the balance between sweet and tart in this dessert. I used the galette dough which worked well but I'm curious about Mark Bittman's crust now.
ReplyDeleteLooks great...I took half of mine to a friend's house as well and she dug right in without waiting for it to be dinner dessert. She loved it and I hope there is some left for George when he gets home! That says it's a great recipe right there.
ReplyDeleteThe tart looks fantastic (and tastes great, too)! It's also earned a spot in our repertoire for that same reason: nice and light and totally different.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy Vienna!
yes, we had our tart with whipped cream, and my husband made the pav comment...I thought it was spot-on (and I also think a traditional pavlova with cranberry sauce as the fruit topping would look spectacular). glad you all enjoyed this one.
ReplyDeleteAgreed - this was good. And you are right, it's like a pav in pastry.
ReplyDeleteIt was nice to have something different, wasn't it? Yours looks great!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely a keeper, right? Lovely crackly meringue!
ReplyDeleteLovely meringue. And I agree that it was surprisingly light and quite delicious!
ReplyDeleteYours looks great! The sweet-tart balance is perfect in this dessert, I agree. I did a gluten-free conversion of Dorie's sweet tart dough for this (which still needs a bit of tweaking on my part to get it right) and I liked it with this.
ReplyDeleteI so agree that you can eat multiple slices without realizing what you are doing. I have Mr. Bittman's book, I'll have to check that tart dough recipe out.
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