Spiced Pumpkin Custard Tart

Good afternoon everyone! How are you all? We are now officially into autumn and I can’t wait to get into spooky season! I love halloween and anything related to Halloween! I’m defiantly what you’d call a ‘basic white girl’*, you can always find me with a Starbucks pumpkin spiced latte, living in knitted sweaters and UGG boots…

Okay so it’s more like pumpkin spiced everything; starting with lattes, but I’ve got candles, car air freshener, ice cream, scented face mask – you name it I have it! And yes I do have coffee syrups, so I don’t go to Starbucks everyday.

Aside the face masks and coffee syrups, I also have recipes with a lot of ways to cook pumpkins. My favourite is the pumpkin custard tart and it’s the first thing I bake once the spooky season starts!

Pastry:
250g cubed unsalted butter at room temperature
175g icing sugar
400g plain flour
2 eggs 
Pinch of salt

Sift flour icing sugar together and add in butter. Beat until at bread crumb stage. Add in beaten eggs and mix to form a dough.  
Allow to rest in the fridge for half an hour before rolling and lining tart case, letting the pastry overhang the tart ring to avoid shrinkage when baking.
Blind bake at 175c for 15 minutes – pricking the base of the case with a fork and lining the case with baking parchment and filling with baking beans/rice/lentils. This will stop the pastry rising and it will cook evenly. 
Remove the baking parchment and baking beans. Return to the oven and continue to bake for an additional 10-15 minutes till golden brown.
Remove from oven and brush the case with egg yolk. This will seal the pastry if there’s any holes or cracks so the filling won’t leak. 
I use a vegetable peeler to scrape along the edges to remove the overhanging pastry while still warm. Leave in the pastry ring till cooled completely.

Filling:
226g cream cheese
65g golden caster sugar
2 eggs – I usually use duck eggs
425g roasted pumpkin puree – one can if you don’t want to make your own puree
Vanilla
Ground cinnamon
Ground cardamon
Ground ginger
Ground nutmeg

To make the puree, cut up your pumpkin into managable sized chunks. Depending on the size of the pumpkin I cut it into 8 or 10 pieces. Remove the seeds: you can wash these and dry out to either grow your own pumpkins or in cooking throughout the year.
Placing on a tray, cover with tin foil so it doesnt burn and dry roast for 15-20 minutes at 170C. The inside of the pumpkin will be soft. Remove from the skin and place in a food processor or blender and blitz until smooth, roughly 4-6 minutes and leave to cool. I usualy use this time to make a coffee.
Whisk together the eggs and sugar untill slighly pale. Whisk in the cream cheese, vanilla and spices until smooth.
Fold in the cooled pumpkin puree until fully combined.
Pour into the prepared tart case and bake at 130C for 25 minutes – the centre of the tart should be slightly wobbly so that when it cools it will continue to cook but not be overcooked. Grate nutmeg over the top.
Once cooled I decorated the tart with roasted figs, pumpkins spiced gin macarons and a handful of physalis.
Cut, serve and enjoy!

Happy baking

Jenny x

* Basic White Girl – slang term in American popular culture used pejoratively to describe women who are perceived to prefer mainstream products, trends, and/or music.