Pumpkin and goats cheese tartlets

I promised more pumpkin recipes so here we go. This recipe is for 4 mini tartlets but you can easily make a larger tart by doubling the quantities and baking for longer. If you find you have some roasted pumpkin left over use it up in a pumpkin and goats cheese risotto. Drizzle some pumpkin seed oil on top and you have yourself a quick and easy dinner.

PUMPKIN AND GOATS CHEESE TARTLETS
 
short crust pastry
2 large eggs
2 tbs sour cream
100gr mild hard goats cheese
50g feta
1 shallot
100ml milk
200g pumpkin
salt and pepper
fresh thyme
 
Preheat the oven to 160°C/Gas 5. Peel, deseed and cut the pumpkin into wedges, then place on a baking tray. Cover with tin foil and leave in the oven for about 30-40 minutes or until soft. Set aside to cool slightly and cut into small cubes. Roll out the pastry and blind bake the shells. Let cool for a bit. Combine the egg, sour cream, milk and goats cheese. Finely chop the shallot and add to the mixture with the thyme. Season with salt and pepper and pour into the pastry shells. Sprinkle with the pumpkin cubes and feta. Bake for 15 min or until set and golden.

Spider web pumpkin pie

This pie made it to a Halloween party (sorry, this post is a bit late...) but could look equally nice at a Thanksgiving dinner. You could alternate the decor to little hearts by making dots instead of circles and moving with the tooth pic outwards on one and inwards on the other side. Or do stripes and cross them to get a geometric pattern. Get creative!

PUMPKIN PIE

sweet pastry base
500g pumpkin, peeled and cubed
2 tbs rum
knob of fresh ginger
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of ground nutmeg
100g sugar
pinch of salt
100g cream cheese
25ml single cream
1 egg

Preheat the oven to 160°C/Gas 5. Peel and cube the pumpkin and place on a baking tray. Cover with foil and leave in then oven for about 40 minutes or until soft. Set aside to cool slightly. Blind bake the sweet pastry and leave to cool also. Prepare the filling by processing the pumpkin cubes and the ginger. Then add the rum, spices, sugar, pinch of salt, and whisk in the cream cheese and the egg until well blended. Put 3-4 tablespoons of the mixture aside and add the cream to get a lighter shade of the pumpkin mix. Pour the darker mix into the baked pastry shell. Now spoon the lighter mix over in circles and use a bamboo skewer, tooth pick or cocktail stick moving from the centre outwards to create the spider web decoration. Bake for about an hour at 160°C until set. Rotate the cake after half an hour so it bakes evenly.

November

November weather but never to cold for ice cream, ... or affogato, and something that leaves me puzzled.