Friday, November 27, 2009

Cranberry Caramel Almond Tarts


The only way I survived student teaching were my weekend escapes back home. Although I was EXHAUSTED all the time, it gave me the opportunity to have a kitchen to use and space and time to clear my head. One weekend home, I was browsing through Smitten Kitchen (yet again-right?!) and came across a daunting recipe for Cranberry Caramel Almond Tarts. Although it depressed me to think about putting hours and hours of work into lesson plans, the hours I knew I would put into this recipe, actually excited me. My grandmother's birthday was coming up and I figured this would be a great chance for me to try out this recipe before making it for her the following week. LET ME TELL YOU! I sucked at making caramel! I made 3 batches. First one tasted burnt and the other 2 were worse...so much worse that I ended up using my 1st batch for the recipe. Haha. I've since gotten the hang of it, but I can't help but wonder....maybe I'll just use my boiled sweetened condensed milk next time for caramel. Shh!

The recipe didn't say to halve the cranberries, so the first time I didn't. They turned into little air-pockets. Next time, I halved them. Much better.

Recipe URL to follow...