In this post:
Of course, in this pumpkin tart everything depends on the type of pumpkin that you buy in the store or at the local weekend market.
First and foremost, the pumpkin must be sweet. One more time: the pumpkin must be sweet. Only in this case your autumn dessert will be filled with a whole spectrum of natural honey-sweet flavors.
The second important point: the pumpkin should not be too wet and watery. Watery pumpkin varieties dilute the flavor, making it less concentrated than we all want in the fall.
The question naturally arises: how to determine that this pumpkin is the one? I suggest focusing on the description of the pumpkin varieties sold in your region. And also remember that at the end of October pumpkins appear on sale that are more suitable for carving than for baking.
In my experience, Hokkaido Pumpkin is one of the most suitable pumpkin varieties for my today’s venture given my location in Central Finland. And by the way, one common Hokkaido pumpkin is usually enough for me to make two pumpkin tarts. It is great, isn’t it?
Overall this pumpkin tart recipe may seem long, but it lends itself very well to optimization. Keep reading for details and tips on how to make it, but first, a few comments about the recipe in general.
Autumn always calls for something warming and rich in flavor, so you can safely experiment with spices in pumpkin filling. The traditional mixture for pumpkin consists of cinnamon, nutmeg and dried ginger. I usually add freshly ground black pepper to this list. However, keep in mind: spices make the color of pumpkin filling dirty. Nevertheless, you are free to experiment.
For baking this tart I use 15 years old French stoneware baking dish (so I do not remember its brand and there are no identifying marks on the dish itself) with a diameter of 27 cm.
It bakes pies and tarts evenly and also looks great when served on the table. Bottom of the dish is also amazing, but no one usually looks at it. But not today, this is here.
I think I managed to arouse your interest with such a long introduction. So, let’s put on an apron and get started.
Pumpkin tart with black peppers and almond flakes
Ingredients
Dough
100 g cold butter
200 g all purpose flour
50 g brown sugar
50 g iced water
Pumpkin filling
500 g baked pumpkin
70 g сream of 10-20% fat of room temperature
3 eggs of room temperature
70 g brown sugar
Optional: 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp, nutmeg and 1/4 tsp ginger
Decoration
freshly ground black pepper
30-50 g almond flakes
Equipment and other
Blender/food processor
Baking dish diameter: 27 cm
Method
1. Peel the pumpkin and remove the seeds from it.
Rinse the seeds and dry them in the oven,
but that’s not what we’re here for today. So let’s go back to the tart.
Cut the pumpkin into small pieces and place them on a baking sheet lined with baking paper.
2. Bake the pumpkin pieces for 30-40 minutes at 200 °C. Bake until pumpkin becomes soft (and not dry): a knife should easily cut through the pumpkin flesh.
3. Place the baked warm pumpkin in a blender (I use Kenwood Food Processor, you can also use an immersion blender), add eggs, cream of room temperature and sugar. Blend the mixture until it becomes glossy and smooth.
Then add extra spices at your discretion: nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon are a good companion to pumpkin as I mentioned before. Blend the whole mixture 5-10 sec. Any way, with or without ginger, the pumpkin filling is ready.
4. Now let’s prepare the shortcrust tart base. Grind the butter, cut into small pieces, flour and sugar in a blender. Alternative kneading option: on a board, chop the butter mixed with flour with a knife until you get fine crumbs. Then add sugar and continue kneading.
5. When the mixture becomes grainy, add ice water. Continue using the blender until the dough begins to form a ball. If you are kneading the dough with a knife, switch to hand kneading after the water has been added.
6. Roll out the resulting dough between two sheets of baking paper to a thickness of 5 mm.
In this situation it is ideal if you have a marble rolling pin: it is heavy and, what is very important now, cold.
Such a rolling pin does not heat up the dough when rolling, leaving the grains of butter intact. Thus, the finished tart base will be flaky.
7. Grease the ceramic baking dish with butter.
Transfer the dough into the dish, then “cut off” the remaining dough by rolling it along the edge of the baking dish with a rolling pin.
At last remove the paper carefully.
Prick the dough with a fork all over the bottom.
Also use a fork to shape the edges of the tart base.
Put the dish in the freezer for 2 hours.
Another way: place a sheet of parchment paper on top of the dough in the dish, and pour a couple of glasses of dry beans or special ceramic balls onto it. This is necessary so that the dough does not deform during baking. In this case you do not need to wait for 2 hours until the dough becomes cold.
8. Preheat oven into 200 °C top-bottom heating mode.
9. Bake tart base for 12-15 minutes. Important: the base should not start to brown so keep an eye on the dough after 10 minutes of baking.
10. Reduce oven temperature to 190 °C.
11. Transfer tart filling into baked base.
Decorate with flaked almonds and freshly ground black pepper
and place the dish in the oven.
11. Bake the pumpkin tart for 35-40 minutes. The center of the tart should be set, but may jiggle a little. Do not worry: the filling will firm up once the tart has cooled.
While the tart is in the oven, you can tidy up the table.
3. Cool the pumpkin tart completely. I prefer this tart cold, so after it has cooled completely, I transfer it to the refrigerator for a couple of hours.
14. This tart goes very well with sour cream or honey as a sauce. It’s also very good without anything. But a cup of strong coffee wouldn’t hurt.
Defying time: 3 steps to optimize baking of the pumpkin tart
- The pumpkin tart base can be frozen with its dish in advance and stored in the freezer for a week.
- The pumpkin can be baked in advance and stored in the refrigerator for 12 hours. After that follow the recipe from step 3.
- You can also bake the pumpkin, grind it in a blender, and freeze the resulting puree. This is great news, because usually one pumpkin is too big for one tart, isn’t it? Before making the tart, you will just need to defrost the puree. Then follow the recipe from the same step 3.
More cakes in this blog which you’d like to test: cakes.