Today, a basic, sweet, and super easy recipe: pumpkin shortcrust pastry, perfect for cookies and tarts.
Pumpkin, pumpkin, and more pumpkin—impossible not to love with its extraordinary versatility. With a pumpkin, we can really create many sweet and savory things. It’s delicious simply roasted and spiced, fantastic for making delicious gnocchi with just two ingredients, extraordinary also in desserts to prepare a soft chocolate cake, or, for example, to create a crumbly pumpkin shortcrust pastry to make cookies or tarts with hazelnut cream.
The pumpkin shortcrust pastry is very simple to prepare; you just need a little patience to wait for the pumpkin to bake to make the puree, but I assure you, it’s worth it. Then we’ll mix everything in a stand mixer—minimal effort, maximum results!
And if you’re not yet tired of eating this magnificent vegetable, you can try sweet and sour pumpkin preserve, pumpkin and potato fritters, crunchy pumpkin seeds, or many other pumpkin recipes.
Let’s see together, step by step, how to make this recipe.
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Very Cheap
- Rest time: 30 Minutes
- Preparation time: 40 Minutes
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
Below you will find the links to the ingredients used
- 2 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar
- 7 tbsps butter
- 1 egg (medium)
- 3.5 oz delica pumpkin (puree (approx. 8.8 oz of raw pumpkin))
Tools
Below you will find the links to some tools used to make the recipe
- 1 Stand Mixer
- 1 Cutting Board
- 1 Knife
Let’s Start!
To make the pumpkin shortcrust pastry, we need the pumpkin puree, so let’s start with that.
Take the pumpkin, wash it, cut it in half, and remove the strings and seeds. Then wrap the amount of raw pumpkin needed in aluminum foil, place it on a baking sheet, and bake in a preheated oven at 392°F for 35 minutes. Once cooked, separate the pulp from the skin with the help of a spoon, put it in a container, and puree with an immersion blender or mash with a fork.
In the bowl of the stand mixer, attach the K-hook (or paddle) and add the flour and powdered sugar with the cold butter cut into pieces. Start mixing until you get a crumbly mixture like grated parmesan (sanding), then add the pumpkin puree and the egg, and continue to mix quickly.
This results in a smooth and homogeneous dough. Do not overwork the dough with the stand mixer to prevent it from becoming warm, as this would make it soft and difficult to handle.
Wrap the pumpkin shortcrust pastry in plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for about half an hour before using it. Meanwhile, take a photo of your shortcrust pastry, post it on social media tagging me (una riccia che pasticcia), and let me know what you’ve decided to create with your shortcrust.
A Curly’s Advice
This pumpkin shortcrust pastry might be stickier than the classic one, so help yourself with a bit of flour when rolling it out.
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
How do I make pumpkin shortcrust cookies?
It’s very simple. Roll out the dough to a thickness of about 1/8 to 3/16 inches, shape with cutters, place on baking sheets, and bake in a preheated oven at 356°F for 15 minutes.
