November has arrived and that means cranberry season is upon us! I am a huge cranberry lover and these Easy Cranberry Apple Tarts would be a beautiful addition to your Thanksgiving table, Christmas dinner, or any holiday celebration all season long.
Easy Cranberry Apple Tarts
Cranberry Apple Tarts are perfect bites of flakey crust wrapped around the most delicious sweet and tart cranberry apple filling. With hints of cinnamon, nutmeg and orange, you will want to eat this filling with a spoon! A sprinkle of coarse sugar on the crust just before baking gives these tarts the prettiest finish and sweet crunch.
Cranberry Apple Pie Filling
The filling starts out very similar to a cranberry sauce, like my Spiced Pear and Cranberry Sauce, but transformed into a pie filling. Cranberries, crisp apple, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg flavor the filling. For these mini pies, the filling is sweeter, thicker and definitely more dessert like than the tart sauce you are accustomed to spooning over turkey and stuffing.
The Best Store Bought Pie Crust
One of the things you (my readers) asked for recently in a holiday recipe poll on Instagram was for EASY pie recipes. Thinking about what makes a pie difficult usually comes down to the homemade crust. For these tarts, I used Pillsbury Refrigerated pie crust and I think you will be pleasantly surprised at how buttery, flakey and delicious it turned out. The most "challenging" part of this entire recipe is cutting the dough into 4" squares. To make it easier I recommend cutting out a 4x4" square of paper and using it as a template.
Spoon cooled filling into the center of pie dough squares and fold the edges in towards the center, working your way around the square until all of the corners are folded in like a present. Press the dough down slightly as you go to seal it together.
The thing I love about tarts is how rustic their shape ends up being. There is no need for perfect technique, crust crimping, or worries about shrinking because these free-form pies bake up right on a cookie sheet as is. A brush of egg wash and a sprinkle of sugar is all they need to give them a beautiful bakery finish.
More Holiday Cranberry Recipes:
- Spiced Pear and Cranberry Sauce
- Cranberry Barbecue Cocktail Meatballs
- Cranberry Spice Margaritas
- Bourbon Cranberry Jello
- Cranberry Mules
- Cranberry Orange Pound Cake
Serve cranberry apple tarts warm or at room temperature. Pile the tarts on a platter and dust with powdered sugar just before serving for a pretty finish. I promise you will love the flavors of these delicious holiday tarts!
Easy Cranberry Apple Tarts
Cranberry Apple Tarts are an easy and impressive holiday dessert.
Ingredients
- 1 cup peeled and small diced apple (Tango or Honey Crisp)
- 1 ½ cups cranberries
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt
- three strips of orange zest (use a veggie peeler)
- 1 Tablespoon corn starch
- 1 Tablespoon fresh orange juice
- 2 Tablespoons butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
- ⅛ teaspoon cinnamon
- 14 oz (2 count) box Pillsbury Refrigerated Pie Crusts
- 1 egg
- "Sugar in the Raw" or Demerara Cane Sugar for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Place diced apple, cranberries, brown sugar, salt and orange zest strips in a sauce pan.
- Cook over medium-high stirring until apples are tender and cranberries have popped, about 8 minutes.
- In a small bowl whisk together corn starch and orange juice until smooth.
- Stir the cornstarch and orange juice slurry into the cranberry sauce and pour into the cranberry sauce. Stir and continue to cook another minute until the sauce thickens.
- Remove pot from the heat and stir in 2 Tablespoons of butter, vanilla, nutmeg and cinnamon. Allow to cool while you cut out the pie crust.
- With a piece of parchment paper and a ruler, cut out a 4x4" square to use as a template.
- Unroll pie crust dough and cut out 10 4" squares. You will need to gather up scraps and re-roll cutting out additional squares to get 10 total.
- Place squares on parchment lined baking sheets and spoon 1 heaping Tablespoon of pie filling into the center of each square. Flatten the filling out slightly into a small round circle.
- Starting at one corner of the square, begin folding the edges in working your way around the square.
- In a small bowl, whisk one egg until smooth with a fork. Brush crust with egg and sprinkle with Demerara sugar.
- Bake in preheated oven until brown and bubbling about 14-15 minutes.
- Cool on baking sheets 10-15 minutes before serving.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 10 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 163Total Fat: 7gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 25mgSodium: 126mgCarbohydrates: 23gFiber: 2gSugar: 12gProtein: 2g
