'Twas the season for dessert squares apparently! For me anyway. These take a little bit of time to make, but they're well worth it. The walnut crust is pretty awesome. They came out fairly sweet, but still have that cranberry tartness... if I make them again I will probably cut the sugar in the filling down to 1/2 cup or 3/4 cup to make them a little more tart and a bit less sweet.
I recommend keeping these in the fridge after you make them, they get mushy very fast.
Ingredients
From: The Kitchn
Crust
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup flour
1/2 cup confectioner sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened slightly and cut into pieces
1. Grease a 9x13 pan.
2. Pulse the walnuts in a food processor for about 15 pulses, then add remaining crust ingredients. Pulse ingredients for another 20-25 one second pulses.
3. Press crust into pan as evenly as possible. Freeze for 30-60 minutes.
4. After freezing, bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
While baking the crust... prepare the filling ...
Ingredients
Filling
3 cups fresh cranberries
1/2 cup water
1 cup sugar
4 large eggs
4 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter (one stick), slightly softened and cut into pieces
Confectioner sugar for sprinkling
1. Place the cranberries and water in a medium sized sauce pan over medium-high heat and stir until the cranberries pop open and become mushy, about 5 minute.
2. Set a fine meshed strainer over a mixing bowl and smash cranberries through the strainer so that the cranberry puree goes into the bowl, leaving the cranberry skins behind. (I found a spatula helpful in smushing the cranberries as well as removing the puree that sticks to the bottom of the strainer). Allow the puree to cool and clean the strainer for later use.
3. To the cranberry puree, mix in the sugar, eggs, egg yolks, lemon juice and salt.
4. Return the cranberry puree to the saucepan oven medium heat and stir constantly, scraping the sides of the pan. Cook until the curd starts to thicken and coats the back of a spoon, about 12 minutes.
5. Remove the pan from heat and stir in the butter until melted. Pour the cranberry mixture into a clean bowl through the fine meshed strainer again (it leaves some mysterious gritty residue behind).
6. Pour the cranberry mixture on top of the walnut crust and bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes, until the center is set but possibly still a little wiggly. Cool completely before cutting into squares. Sprinkle confectioner sugar over squares.
Walnut crust:
Cranberries:
Strainer over a bowl technique:
The more you smush, the more puree you'll get...
Cranberry mixture:
I cut them before they cooled completely. No major catastrophes.
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