I found this recipe for Pumpkin Tart with Chocolate in the November 2009 issue of Portland Monthly Magazine and it has been stuck to the front of my fridge ever since. I'm not exactly sure what about it snagged my interest; though it must have been my love of both chocolate and squash I suppose...
I was especially excited to try this thing out this Christmas as it was my first attempt at pie (or tart) crust and it turned out to be much easier than most people tend to lead you to believe.
Tart Crust
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
9 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold. cut into 1/2 inch pieces
4 tablespoons sweet white wine, cold (I used Chateau Ste. Michelle Reisling)
Filling
3 pounds pumpkin (or squash, I used butternut. I suppose you could use canned if you wanted to...
but fresh is classier)
1 1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup dark rum
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
confectioners sugar to sprinkle on top
It's important before you start to make sure you have the proper bake ware, the recipe calls for a 9" tart pan, but you could probably do it in a pie pan as well. Needless to say, we ended up running to Kitchen Kaboodle at quarter till 5 on Christmas Eve. 15 minutes till closing, the clerks were a bit bitchy.
Start out by roasting the pumpkin (whole) at 375 deg until it collapses on itself, about an hour or so. Pull it out and let it cool. Remove the seeds and skin, then cut the thing into chunks, mine were between 1/2 to 1 inch.
Preheat the oven to 450 deg. Mix the dry crust ingredients in a food processor with a few pulses. Add the cold butter, and pulse it about 10 times or until it takes on a granulated texture. You can also do the the old-fashioned way with a pastry cutter (funny "D" shaped whisk thing). Then, with the machine running, slowly add the cold wine. Once the dough is mixed, form it into a 1 inch disc and refrigerate it for 30 minutes. Roll the disc out and place it in your tart pan. And freeze it for at least another 30 minutes, or until you are ready to bake. This is pretty important, I think my crust thawed a little much before I baked it, causing the crust to settle away from the edges so the crust was pretty much just on the bottom of the tart.
Heat the sugar in a small saucepan until it caramelizes (if you have a candy thermometer, USE IT). When the color is deep, remove from heat and carefully add butter. Carefully because the butter sizzles pretty well when you add it and you don't want it splattering on you. You really want the color to be pretty deep because you're looking for caramel and not toffee, I don't think I heated mine long enough so when I added it to the pumpkin, it cooled hard and crunchy and didn't mix well.
With the butter in, pour the mixture over your pumpkin and mix coarsely, not so much that you blend the pumpkin, just mixed. Add the rum. Cool to room temperature.
Turn the oven down to 400 deg, wrap the frozen dough in foil and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 5 minutes until dry and slightly golden (this is where my crust slumped down into the bottom of the pan).
Chop the chocolate (again coarsely, the idea is for there to be distinct chunks of pumpkin and chocolate and not a blend like your usual pumpkin pie) and add to the pumpkin.
Pour the filling into the shell; bake for 25 minutes at 350 deg.
Voila! When the thing is golden brown, pull it out, let it cool a bit and dig in! Sprinkle a little powdered sugar on top for aesthetic appeal and you've crafted yourself a gorgeous little dessert.
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