Don't underestimate Pastiche!

We've had many of the fruit tarts or flans or whatever you want to call them from Pastiche on Federal Hill in Providence, one of our favorite bakeries.  Most of the time they are adorned with sliced fruit in a pretty pattern and of course finished with a glaze to hold the fruit in place. The fruit is usually chosen to create a colorful presentation and usually consists of berries, mango, and kiwi - you know - things with contrasting colors.

Always a favorite ..something from Pastiche!

Yep, those are cranberries!

Piled pretty high, too!

A few raspberries for flourish!

The glaze and the pastry cream helped the tart from being too tart!

Imagine our surprise when this time around the tart is covered to the max with a mix of raspberries and many, many cranberries. Yep, I mean cranberries. Granted this is the cranberry season but given that they tend to the sour side their prolific use on this cake was quite audacious.  We imagined we would all be going home with puckered lips from the sourness but that did not turn out to be the case at all. The glaze was just sweet enough to offset the cranberries which did provide a tang. That tanginess was further moderated by the raspberries and the pastry cream below the fruit. So despite the belief that because of the cranberries this could turn out to be a miss it was indeed a hit.