At the Bagley house we have a few traditional recipes we make every year for both Thanksgiving and Christmas Dinner--when it's our year to spend one of those holidays at the Nielson's, I always make sure my mom saves me a taste because holidays don't feel compete without getting my fill. One is my mom's sausage, cornbread dressing. It's so good that this year, I made it to bring to the Nielson dinner and all the brother-in-laws couldn't stop raving about it. I have a feeling it's going to become part of their tradition too.
The second is my mom's Cranberry+Cutie Sauce. It's more like a fruit salad, but it's what we use for our cranberry sauce, because, well, once you try it, you'll realize all other cranberry sauces are inferior. Marcus even asked me to make that and bring it to the Nielson's this year too.
The thing is, we always make up a huge batch so we can snack on it for the rest of the week, but I had an idea on how we could mix it up and use our leftovers to create something new! As they say, variety is the spice of life :)
One of my favorite summer desserts is fruit pizza--it's a sugar cookie crust with strawberries, blueberries, kiwi, pineapples and oranges. So I thought it would be fun to create a winter version--a cranberry+cutie tart!
You start off with the sugar cookie crust--use any soft sugar cookie recipe you like--I even used zest from the Cuties in my dough.
Depending on the size of tart you want, you can form it in large muffin tins, small pie tins or a full size pie! I like a pretty thick crust, so form it about 3/4 inch. Bake until just golden. Let it fully cool, then fill in with about 1/2 inch of the cream cheese, whipped cream filling. Lastly, you top that off with your cranberry+cutie sauce.
We use the Zyliss food slicer to cut up the pears and apples, but you can do it by hand if you don't have one. Blend up the cranberries in a food processor, nice and fine. Then chop up the pecans with a large knife, or lightly blend in a food processor. Dice up the cuties-- the more cuties the better! Really, the cuties bring such a refreshing, juicy pop to the tart. It was taste tested around the family and all agreed it was a winner!
Let me know if you give it a try and how you like it. I'd love to hear some of you favorite holiday recipes too!
Cranberry+Cutie Holiday Tart//
Start with your Favorite Sugar Cookie Recipe with Citrus Zest
Cream Cheese Filling:
One 8 oz brick of cream cheese softened
6 cups freshly whipped cream, sweetened to your liking with powdered sugar
Cranberry+Cutie Sauce:
Two Apples
Two Pears
6-8 Cuties
1 Package of Cranberries
1/2-3/4 cup of sugar depending on sweetness of fruit
1/2-3/4 cup of sugar depending on sweetness of fruit
Pecans to taste (we like lots!)
Check out Cuties website for more seasonal recipes and inspiration from their #100DaysofSunshine campaign.
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*Thank you Cuties for sponsoring this post.
