Help me experienced bakers: NYT Cranberry Curd Tart edition

[Anonymous]

Making this recipe, and planning to follow the option in step 6 that says "(Alternatively, for the most vibrant color, purée the cooked cranberry and orange mixture with an immersion blender or in a food processor or blender. Press through a fine-mesh sieve.)" Where I'm having a brain fart is whether or not to remove the orange peel before blending it... I assumed yes, and picked all the orange peels out, but then read it again and got thrown off by it saying "cranberry AND ORANGE" mixture. But then again, maybe that's just referring to the orange juice portion?? Thoughts?

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017817-cranberry-curd-tart#notes_section

[Anonymous]

The way I’m reading it is to leave it in. So you would push the solids through a medium sieve or food mill, or instead just purée everything together for the most vibrant color. Either way, the peel is included.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The way I’m reading it is to leave it in. So you would push the solids through a medium sieve or food mill, or instead just purée everything together for the most vibrant color. Either way, the peel is included.

Ok, I was wondering if it was important for color, but then I got concerned about how bitter orange peel is and confused myself again. -OP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The way I’m reading it is to leave it in. So you would push the solids through a medium sieve or food mill, or instead just purée everything together for the most vibrant color. Either way, the peel is included.

Ok, I was wondering if it was important for color, but then I got concerned about how bitter orange peel is and confused myself again. -OP

PP here. To clarify, I have not yet made this recipe, so I am just going off the instructions. I would also be concerned about adding the peel, but the recipe seems to include it.

[Anonymous]

OP how much peel did you include? Like the entire peel, or just shavings of it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The way I’m reading it is to leave it in. So you would push the solids through a medium sieve or food mill, or instead just purée everything together for the most vibrant color. Either way, the peel is included.

Ok, I was wondering if it was important for color, but then I got concerned about how bitter orange peel is and confused myself again. -OP

PP here. To clarify, I have not yet made this recipe, so I am just going off the instructions. I would also be concerned about adding the peel, but the recipe seems to include it.

You see my dilemma!

[Anonymous]

If it was a bit of it shaved off the orange without any pith it might be ok. I think pureering a piece of orange rind with the pith would over power and make it bitter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If it was a bit of it shaved off the orange without any pith it might be ok. I think pureering a piece of orange rind with the pith would over power and make it bitter.

So it's the skin of an entire orange, but I did remove nearly all of the pith. I had to make a decision before the cranberries cooled completely, so what I ended up doing was just pureeing maybe a quarter to a third of the orange peel with the cranberries, tasting along the way to make sure it wasn't getting bitter. I stopped there because i didn't want the orange flavor to overpower the cranberry. Color looks ok, not bitter, but don't think the whole orange peel would have gone well. Still not sure what the recipe meant for me to do. -OP

[Anonymous]

OP, I attempted this tart this year, too, after reading about it here. My takeaways:

-I did not include the orange peel in the blended mixture because that’s incredibly bitter
-Pushing the blended mixture through a sieve is a royal PITA
-There is WAY too much butter in this recipe

I ended up adding the cranberry sauce I’d already made (just cranberries, a little sugar, water, and lemon zest) to cut the butter taste. I blended all of it together and the taste was divine. Baked it today, with a Digestive biscuit crust, and excited to try tomorrow!

[Anonymous]

I can’t read the recipe, but when I make cranberry relish from an ocean spray basic recipe, I use an orange with almost all peel included, I just cut the ends off and cut in slices, and remove any large white pith inside. I assume this would be similar.

[Anonymous]

Yes, if you removed all the pith and boiled it with the cranberries, you put everything that was in the pot in the blender/use the immersion blender and then the next step of putting it through a sieve will get rid of any large bits. It will not be bitter - just very tart which is good in a curd.

[Anonymous]

Where the recipe calls for the peel of the orange, I'd go with zest, i.e. the peel, finely grated into the mix.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where the recipe calls for the peel of the orange, I'd go with zest, i.e. the peel, finely grated into the mix.

Agree

[Anonymous]

+1 for some zest but not the whole peel. Report back on your results, OP!

[Anonymous]

I took it out. I used the peel in big strips, as opposed to zesting it. It seemed like it wouldn’t blend well.
But I thought to myself that next time I would zest the orange, and then obviously it stays in. So that’s my recommendation.
BTW, that curd is my new favorite food ever. Hope it goes well and you enjoy it.