cuisinart tart pan with removable bottom

But don’t worry, it will all, just barely, fit. Then the caramel pumpkin mixture gets poured into the prepared gingersnap tart crust, where it gets precariously close to overflowing. It’s a small step that makes a big difference in the final texture. This will remove any stray fibrous bits from the pumpkin puree, any stringy egg bits (aka chalazae), and any small bits of mascarpone that didn’t fully melt into the caramel. The pumpkin puree gets mixed with spices and eggs, and then the caramel sauce gets mixed in with the pumpkin.Īnd then, the secret to a smooth custard tart: the mixture gets strained through a fine mesh sieve. The caramel makes the whole thing taste fuller and rounder and, paradoxically, lighter than a traditional pumpkin pie filling.

The mascarpone is subtle here, but it’s very gentle tang helps to balance the sweetness of the caramel so it doesn’t overwhelm the tart. Then, instead of turning to a can of sweetened condensed milk, I opted to make a caramel sauce enriched with a bit of heavy cream and a generous amount of mascarpone. The gingersnap crust brings extra gingery heat to the crust, which helps to balance the sweetness of the pumpkin filling.įor the pumpkin part, I kept the pumpkin puree and the general traditional pumpkin spice profile, but I added some orange zest to brighten things up and some dark brown sugar for a hint of molasses-y bitterness. I find that cookie crumb crusts tend to work better in tart pans with removable bottoms than in pie pans, so I swapped pans to shift from pie to tart. The first trick was swapping out the traditional pie crust for a simple press-in gingersnap crust. So I set out to make a version of pumpkin pie I could really love.Īnd I think, with this caramel pumpkin tart, I’ve found it. And I believed that it had potential to be something special in the pie-and-tart category. The crust tends to be pale and damp, the filling dense and ever so slightly fibrous and grainy, the flavor a little flat.īut still, I like pumpkin’s flavor (I love it in pumpkin bread and pumpkin cake).

But it rarely lives up to what I want a special occasion dessert to be.Īt Thanksgiving, when dessert rolls around, I’m more likely to go for the apple pie, or, if I’m really lucky, the cranberry curd tart than the traditional pumpkin pie.

Cuisinart tart pan with removable bottom