Monday, October 12, 2009

Pumpkin-Chocolate Tart


I have to admit: I am not the biggest fan of the combination of pumpkin and chocolate. Everyone in my family loves it, me?-notsomuch. But I've had this recipe since...a long time ago, and wanted to try it (that link goes directly to the recipe on marthastewart.com-I love a site with printable recipes!). As it turns out, it has just the right combination of spices that accentuate the chocolate and it all melds together perfectly. Martha, as usual, you come through, and provide me with a dessert that may become part of our regular Thanksgiving feast.

The dough was a bit of a revelation to me. I was surprised at how dense it was.


And then surprised at how easy it was to work with. It only stuck to my mat the tiniest bit when I first started rolling it out, but came up easily and was very easy to transfer to the tart pan.


It made me wish that I could use it for pie, but I think it's probably too crisp and cookie-like. I definitely need to add chocolate-y pie crust to my list of recipes to try/develop. I was a little concerned that the crust shrank so much during cooking,


but as it turned out, my filling came right up to the edge and didn't spill over at all.


The filling was also a bit of a surprise. As much as I like pumpkin pie, I have always found the texture a little unappealing--it's sort of gritty, don't you think? This filling is put through a sieve after everything is combined. Be aware, if you use freshly grated nutmeg (which, in fairness to Martha, the recipe doesn't call for, it simply says "ground nutmeg"--but now that I've discovered the virtues of using freshly grated I don't want to go back to my old ways!) the pieces will likely be too big to go through a sieve (assuming yours is as fine as mine is). All of my nutmeg got left behind, so I just stirred more back in post-sieve. It was a bit of work to push this mixture through my sieve, but so completely worth it. The result is such a smooth and refined custard. Beautiful texture with the crispy chocolate/spice crust. The taste is fantastic, spicy, not too sweet, homey and autumn-like. A very classed-up alternative to pumpkin pie.



P.S. Beautiful fall colors.


Speaking of which, I never use light brown sugar. A lot of recipes (including this one) specifically call for light as opposed to dark brown sugar. I like dark. I like the depth it gives to the flavor. And I don't think it's ever caused the flavors to be unbalanced in any recipe I've used.


TGIP Rating--Pumpkin-Chocolate Tart--KEEPER--and think about using this sieve technique on traditional pumpkin pie (maybe add spices post-sieve, or get a slightly less fine sieve)

Next up: Prima turns 10 on Sunday. Holy. I've been a mom so long, why have I still not figured it out?! At any rate, we're throwing a spooky/creepy party for her on Friday. I'm baking an Angel Food cake. Pretty scary, huh? Wait until you see what I do with it!

1 comment:

mindo said...

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?! This looks amazing!