New year teatime

Happy new year! First post of the year is still slightly festive in a way, because it's cranberry-related. I always seem to have cranberries lurking around the place after Christmas because they come in quite big bags and last forever. Once you're fed up of cranberry sauce on verything try this for a teatime treat. I reckon it would be equally tasty with mincemeat too, perhaps with a bit of grated apple mixed in. I have some left over mincemeat so I'll give it a go and report back soon...

Crunchy cranberry tart

For the cranberry sauce:

350g fresh cranberries

125g caster sugar

zest and juice of an orange

For the pastry:

250g butter, softened

50g caster sugar

2tbsp sunflower oil

1tsp vanilla extract

1 egg, beaten

250g plain flour

1tsp baking powder

pinch salt

2tsp cinnamon

Place the cranberry sauce ingredients in a small pan. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes until all the cranberries have burst, stirring frequently. Transfer to a bowl and allow to cool completely. Alternatively, you could use up some ready-made cranberry sauce from a jar.

For the pastry, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the oil and vanilla extract, then gradually beat in the egg. Sift the flour, baking bowder, salt and cinnamon into a separate bowl then gradually stir it into the butter mixture. Bring the dough together with your hands and knead lightly into a ball. Wrap in clingfilm and chill until very firm (at least 2 hours, or put it in the freezer for a while if you're short on time).

Grease and line a 25cm tart tin. Grate 2/3 of the chilled dough into the tin, and spread it evenly without packing it down. Spread the cold cranberry sauce on top leaving a 1.5cm gap around the edges. Grate the rest of the dough on top, sprinkle with demerara sugar and bake at 150oC for 75-90 minutes until pale but firm. Cool in the tin then dust with icing sugar and cut into slices. Make yourself a cup of tea and put your feet up, enjoy!