Preparation

• First, prepare the shortcrust pastry.

  In a bowl, combine all the ingredients and knead.

  Be careful to pour the water gradually and not all at once because, as always, the flours do not absorb it in the same way.

  Once you have the dough, put it in the fridge.

• Now proceed with the pumpkin cream for the filling.

  Peel the pumpkin and cut it into pieces.

  Cook it in the preferred way, I – as I often do especially when I need the pumpkin as an ingredient – cooked it in the microwave.

  Cooking time for the pumpkin in the microwave (1 lb) cut into pieces: about 8 minutes.

  Time as always is not mandatory, depending on the variety of the pumpkin, its initial temperature (room or fridge), and the size of the pieces.

  Let the pumpkin cool, or at least warm.

  Tip: there’s nothing wrong with cooking the pumpkin ahead of time, even hours before. In fact, it can be useful for optimizing time and potentially letting it drain a bit from any cooking liquid, if present.

• Blend the pumpkin with an immersion blender by adding the cream, sugar, egg, and spices.

  Note on spices: following the various indications found in all the recipes I consulted (really many), I used ground ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, and crushed cloves (if you have powdered cloves it might be better). For my personal taste, I suggest limiting the nutmeg.

  
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• Roll out the shortcrust pastry with a rolling pin and get a round shape (I used a 10.2-inch baking pan and rolled the dough to a diameter of 12 inches).

  Tip: remember that regardless of the diameter of the pan or baking dish used, the dough must always be larger, to obtain a sufficiently high edge to contain the filling, which being very soft could overflow.

  Possibly set aside a piece of dough to make the strips later (I will explain better in the next steps).

• Place the dough on a baking tray covered with parchment paper.

  Arrange the edge a bit raised, then pour the pumpkin and cream mixture into the crust (for me, it came out very soft).

  

• With the piece of shortcrust pastry I had set aside, I attempted to decorate the tart in the classic way.

  As you can see from the photo, I managed to create this art nouveau style decoration worthy of a creative kindergarten child, 🤣 this due to the evidently excessive softness of the pumpkin mixture, in which the strips tended to sink. And also because there were not enough strips. 😅

  ☝ In short, maybe it’s better to bake the tart without strips, as you do with real pumpkin pies. If you intend to add strips, perhaps you should first thicken the mixture a bit (using more eggs, or adding a tablespoon of starch, or using less cream).

  

• At this point, the cake can be baked.

  Oh, one last thing: before baking, I added a sprinkle of ginger on the strips.

  Baking time: 35 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius (356 degrees Fahrenheit).

  

• I had a lot of fun making this pumpkin tart, which doesn’t resemble the real original cake at all, but I liked it a lot, especially because I love pumpkin and I love spiced desserts. And then the shortcrust pastry turned out to be crumbly and crispy, really very good, and I will definitely use it again in the future!

  I really hope my personalized spiced pumpkin tart also pleases you a lot! Let me know!!