This recipe of a fan of Dontsova's creativity was hardly left unattended. For those who want to refresh their memory of the original text, we recall that the author has placed it on the pages of the book "Manicure for the Dead".
This classic homemade delicacy is prepared quite easily and quickly. If you have all the necessary products, you can keep up with the phone call of friends who are going to visit you until they ring the doorbell.
But for those who first try to cook this simple and tasty dish at home, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with its step-by-step preparation and pre-fill your hand. The fact is that this cake, like any baked goods that is prepared at home, has a few little tricks. Without their knowledge, this interesting, simple and successful recipe can be quite frustrating.
It is very important to read the instructions in full before you start cooking in order to get an idea of all the operations in stages.
Products
The special conditions start already when the list of ingredients is prepared.
Margarine or butter - 1 standard pack (200 ÷ 250 grams).
The secret is that margarine should be close enough to butter in quality. Some brands of margarine tend to "float" in the dough, separating part of the liquid fraction. As a result, the dough at the exit will not be crumbly, but dense and "heavy".
If you do prefer natural butter, it should be chilled without freezing in the refrigerator, and then allowed to warm until soft, but not thawed. Margarine can be used at a slightly higher temperature due to its higher melting point.
Wheat flour - 1 cup (250 ÷ 300 grams).
In order for the dough to be airy, it is imperative to sift the flour before cooking. This will slightly increase the volume due to the saturation with air that separates the flour particles.
Eggs -3 pieces.
The eggs will need to be used not entirely, but by separating the whites from the yolks, both in the dough and for the filling. It is better to do this in advance and put the whites in the freezer for a few minutes, since chilled them are much easier to beat.
Sugar - 500 grams.
The dough is used 50 g, the rest - in the filling: 300 g - for the cranberry puree, about 150 g - in the protein cream. It is better to take beet sugar rather than cane sugar - it is easy to recognize by its yellowish tint. Such sugar dissolves more easily, and in combination with the acidity of the berries, it gives a more pleasant taste. For a protein cream, it is even better to use powdered sugar, which, when whisked with proteins, gives a firmer foam.
Cranberries - 1 cup fresh or thawed berries
If the cranberries are frozen, defrost them beforehand. If even a small amount of ice gets into the filling, the pie will turn out "with a tarnished reputation" - when cut, liquid juice will flow out.
Note in parentheses that we are taking cranberries, since this is what our dish is called. But it is quite legitimate to replace the fruit component with other berries with sourness: cherries, red or black currants, blackberries.
To thicken the fruit mass, you can add a little - 1 tablespoon - of potato starch. It is undesirable to take corn, it loses its astringent properties during high-temperature processing.
The products are prepared in the right proportions, you can track the cooking process step by step.
Filling: part one - cranberries
The time allotted for baking the dough will not be enough to prepare the filling, so let's start cooking with it.
Cranberries are a storehouse of vitamins, a domestic calorie burner no worse than a tropical pineapple, a beautiful and tasty berry, the benefits and value of which are undeniable. To prepare the filling, you need to grind the berries with sugar.
Opinions differ here: some prefer homogeneous mashed potatoes, chopped in a mixer, others slightly knead the berries, leaving about a third intact. A matter of taste. But in both cases, a spoonful of starch for viscosity, as mentioned above, will be useful.
We'll cook the second part of the filling while the dough is baking, so it's time to get started.
Dough
The type of shortcrust pastry that we will cook belongs to the category of "quick": it does not like long kneading and contact with warm hands. Therefore, in the beginning we will mix its components with a whisk or fork, and only at the final stage we will knead by hand. But it is better to preheat the oven to a temperature of 200 ÷ 250 ° C.
In a deep enamel bowl, grind the yolks with sugar until it is completely dissolved. Then beat with butter and flour until smooth. Add flour at the end of whipping in small portions. Put it on a floured cutting table, quickly knead the soft dough and place in a mold.
Here's another caveat. It is better to take the form with sides along the height of the finished cake and thick walls. Grease the inside with butter so that the cake comes off easily after baking. You will have to manually distribute the dough inside the mold, since you will not be able to roll it out. The layer should not exceed 1 cm in thickness, and for better baking, you need to make several punctures with a fork over the entire area of the layer.
The dough should be baked until light golden brown, otherwise it will become too dense and poorly absorb the berry filling. By the time the dough is removed from the oven, the filling should be completely prepared as the pie will go back into the oven.
Filling: part two - protein cream
The cooled egg whites whisk well, but manually this is a rather laborious process. Moreover, the lower part of the protein is trying to stay liquid all the time. Fortunately, a variety of kitchen tools, from a mechanical mixer to a blender, do everything quickly and efficiently.
First, beat the protein, then gradually add sugar (sand or powder) in small portions until you get a strong, strong protein foam at the exit.
The last effort
The cake mold taken out of the oven must be quickly cooled. This is easily done by placing it in a container with a thin layer of water or on a very wet cloth. Now the cake will separate well from the mold, but you do not need to remove it yet. Put the cranberry puree on the bottom of the cake, and carefully place the protein cream on top with an even layer.
Very important: the cream should only touch the cake, not touching the mold! Otherwise, you will be provided with an unpleasant look and smell of burnt protein.
We send the cake back to the oven for 7-10 minutes. If the oven does not have glass to visually track the process, be patient and do not open the door until it is fully cooked, otherwise the protein may fall off under the influence of external cold air. The finished cake takes on a delicate opal color.
Summarize
The entire cooking process takes 20-30 minutes, and the last 7-10 minutes of baking no longer require the participation of the hostess. You just have to take the pie out of the oven and serve. Such a treat will be especially successful in ladies' society, where it is well accepted for its low calorie content and exquisite taste.
