As a result of getting over-excited when visiting our local pumpkin farm, we had lots of pumpkins to use up after Halloween this year. I decided to puree some of them (my pumpkin puree recipe is at the bottom of this post) and I decided to create a pumpkin version of Pastel de Nata. These Portugese pastries are a favourite of mine; they’re small, sweet, custard tarts, that go perfectly with a coffee. Pumpkin pie isn’t far off a custard tart, but it has a bit more body and a lot more spice to it, so I thought it could work well as a autumn or Halloween version of the Portugese custard tarts.
I took ideas from several pumpkin pie and Pastel de Nata recipes, and came up with the below. Bizarrely, it worked really well and my Pumpkin Pastel de Nata were delicious – highly recommended as an autumnal sweet treat. Give it a go!
Pumpkin Pastel de Nata Recipe
This recipe makes 12 small pastries.
Ingredients
One packet of ready-rolled puff pastry
7.5oz pumpkin puree (recipe below)
6oz milk
75g caster sugar
1/2tsp cinnamon
Sprinkle of mixed spice
Generous grating of nutmeg
1 egg
1/4tsp salt
Method
- Preheat your oven to 220 (200 fan).
- Grease or line a muffin tray (and do it well – my tarts had to be chiselled out).
- Using a round cutter (3inch or 3.5inch), cut 12 circles out of your pastry and place them in the muffin tray (you may need to gather the scraps and re-roll them).
- Place the tray in the fridge while you make the filling.
- Whisk together the pumpkin, milk, sugar, cinnamon, mixed spice, nutmeg, egg and salt in a large bowl.
- Transfer the mix to a jug.
- Pour into the pastry cases in the muffin tray.
- Bake for 25 minutes.
- Carefully remove the tarts from the tray and leave to cool on a wire rack.
Pumpkin & Chickpea Curry
Another great way to use up Halloween pumpkins is to make Jamie Oliver’s Pumpkin and Chickpea Curry. It’s a recipe for four people, but we got at least eight servings out of it. It’s a good recipe, but I’d definitely make the pumpkin pieces smaller and add more chilli next time.
Pumpkin Puree Recipe
Making pumpkin puree can be extremely faffy depending on the method you use. I tried baking and blitzing it this time, which was much easier than other methods I’ve tried. Here’s what to do:
Method
- Preheat your oven to 180 (160 fan)
- Cut your pumpkin in half
- Scrape out the innards
- Wipe the cut edges with oil
- Place face down in a roasting tray
- Add a cup of water to the roasting tray
- Bake for 90minutes
- Leave to cool, but not until it’s cold
- Peel the skin off
- Roughly chop and blitz in a food processor
- Drain off the extra liquid by placing the puree in a sieve lined with kitchen roll. Leave to drip for 2hrs.
- Press the puree through an empty sieve