Desserts

2-3 tablespoons	dried cranberries
2 tablespoons	cognac or Armagnac
100g	dessert or bitter chocolate
100g	butter
50g	flour
½ teaspoon	cinnamon
100g	sugar and a bit of sugar for dishes
3	eggs

Chop the dried cranberries and soak in cognac for several hours.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees
Line the dishes with butter and sprinkle with sugar.
Melt chocolate in a double boiler.
Add butter and mix until the butter is completely melted.
Incorporate flour, cinnamon, sugar, eggs, and marinated cranberries.
Lower heat and continue to stir until the sugar is melted.
Pour the chocolate mixture into the dishes and cook in preheated oven for 10 minutes.
Take out the tarts from the oven, detach the sides with the point of a knife and then flip onto a dessert plate.
Sprinkle sugar and serve. The centre of the tarts should be creamy.

Note: This is ideal with a vanilla cranberry sauce.

In a saucepan, mix 100 ml apple juice with 100g sugar cane, 1 cinnamon stick and 170 g cranberries.
Wash one orange, zest and juice.
Add the juice and zest from the orange to the cranberries and cook at medium heat for 20 minutes until the cranberries have expanded, then let the sauce rest for a few hours.

Cook frozen cranberries just until they pop. Longer cooking brings out their bitterness and makes them mushy.
Do not use aluminium cookware when cooking cranberries as the berries' acid reacts with aluminium and causes it to discolour. Use stainless steel, glass or porcelain.
Eliminate foaming and over boiling when cooking frozen cranberries by adding one teaspoon of butter.

Chop cranberries in a food processor, using quick on/off pulses, to save time.
When cooking, add a little salt or ¼ teaspoon baking soda or baking powder to cranberry sauce to reduce the amount of sugar needed and bring out the cranberry flavour.
Soak dried cranberries in warm water, orange juice or a liqueur for 20 to 30 minutes to get plumper berries which can be used as a substitute for frozen or fresh cranberries in many recipes.
For baked goods (i.e. muffins, cakes or slices), chop frozen cranberries and toss them with sugar before stirring into the batter to improve sweetening.