Pumpkin Pie Treacle Tart
Pumpkin pie combined with treacle tart to make the ultimate Thanksgiving dessert! The classic treacle filling is flavoured with pumpkin, brown butter and warming spices.
Servings: 12 People
Equipment
- 9" Pie Dish
- Rolling Pin
- Baking Beans
- Large Mixing Bowl
- Saucepan
- Sieve
Ingredients
Pie Crust
- 220 g Plain Flour
- ½ tsp Table Salt
- 90 g Unsalted Butter (Cold & Diced)
- 60 g Lard (Cold & Diced)
- 30 g Ice Cold Water
- 1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 Egg Yolk (For Blind Baking)
Pumpkin Spice
- ½ tsp Ground Cinnamon
- ½ tsp Ground Ginger
- ½ tsp Sea Salt
- ¼ tsp Ground Allspice
- ¼ tsp Grated Nutmeg
- ⅛ tsp Freshly Cracked Black Pepper
Pumpkin Treacle Pie Filling
- 100 g Unsalted Butter
- 300 g Golden Syrup
- 60 g Black Treacle
- 1 tbsp Lemon Juice
- Zest Of 1 Lemon
- 220 g Pumpkin Puree (From A Tin - See Notes)
- 150 g Sour Cream (At Room Temperature)
- 60 g Dark Brown Sugar
- 2 Large Eggs
- 1 Egg Yolk
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 250 g Brioche Breadcrumbs (See Notes)
Instructions
Pie Crust
- Place the flour & salt into a mixing bowl, whisk together then add in the butter & lard. Rub the fats into the flour by hand until the mix resembles coarse breadcrumbs but with some larger chunks of fat still visible.Don't make the fats too small! The larger chunks are what makes the pie crust flaky.
- Add in the cold water & vinegar then mix by hand to make a rough dough.
- Tip the dough out onto a clean work surface & knead gently until smooth (be careful not to overwork the pastry) then flatten into a disc & wrap in clingfilm. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
Rolling Out
- Take the pastry out of the fridge & leave to sit at room temperature for 10-15 minutes. This makes the pastry more pliable & easier to roll out.
- Roll the pastry out on a lightly floured work surface into a disc that's around 4mm thick. For a 9" pie dish, your disc of pastry should be around 12" wide.Lightly dust the top of the pastry with flour as well, to stop your rolling pin from sticking! Don't use too much flour though as this can dry the pastry out.
- Carefully roll the pastry around your rolling pin then unroll into a 9" pie tin. Gently press the pastry into the tin, letting the excess pastry overhang the pie dish by a couple of centimetres. Use a pair of scissors to trim any excess pastry off if necessary.
- Next, take the overhanging pastry & tuck it underneath itself, so that the edge of the pie crust sits flush with the edge of the dish. We're looking to make a thicker crust around the edge so that we can crimp it.A small amount of the overhanging pastry might go down the inside edge of the pie dish as you fold it to form the crust. This is totally fine!
- Next, use your fingers or a fork to crimp the pastry along the edge of the pie dish. Dock the base of the pie crust with a fork then chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours before baking, or for up to 2 days.I went for a fluted edge for my crust but crimp yours however you like!
Blind Baking
- Preheat an oven to 200°c/180°c fan (392°f/356°f). Place a large metal baking tray into the oven now as well, so that it can heat up. We'll be baking the pie crust on top of the tray, so that the base cooks properly.Make sure to give your oven & the tray plenty of time to fully saturate with heat. This is key to baking a crisp, flaky pie crust!
- Next, take a large piece of baking parchment, scrunch it up then place inside your pie crust. Fill the crust with baking beans (or uncooked rice) then place the pie dish onto the tray that's in the oven.
- Bake the pie crust for 25-30 minutes, until the edges are starting to turn a light golden brown. If you carefully lift the parchment up, the pastry shouldn't be stuck and should look dry on the surface.
- Next, carefully lift the baking parchment & baking beans out of the pie crust and set aside to cool. Then return the pie crust to the oven and bake for another 4-6 minutes, until the inside is a very light golden brown.
- Once baked, let the pastry cool for a couple of minutes then brush a thin layer of egg yolk over the bottom & sides (not the top edge!), to seal up any holes.
- Place the pie crust back into the oven then bake for another 30 seconds – 1 minutes to set the egg. Be careful not to over bake as the egg will scramble.
- Set the blind baked crust to one side whilst you prepare the filling. You'll also need to turn your oven down to 160°c/320°f (140°c/284°f fan).Turn the oven down as soon as the pie crust comes out! Keep the pie crust on the tray, as it will be easier to place back into the oven once it's filled.
Pumpkin Spice
- Add all of the ingredients for the pumpkin spice into a bowl then stir to combine. Do this as your pie crust blind bakes! I'd recommend blitzing the breadcrumbs and weighing the filling ingredients out now as well. Keep the breadcrumbs fairly coarse.
Pumpkin Pie Treacle Filling
- Chop the butter into small pieces, add into a medium saucepan then set over a medium heat. Cook, stirring regularly until it starts to foam, smells nutty and you can see that the milk solids on the bottom of the pan have turned brown.
- As soon as the brown butter is cooked, take the pan off the heat and whisk in the pumpkin spice. Then add in the golden syrup, treacle, lemon juice and zest. Whisk to combine then set to one side, to cool slightly.
- Next, add the pumpkin puree into a large mixing bowl along with the sour cream, brown sugar, eggs, yolk and vanilla extract. Whisk to combine.
- Slowly pour the golden syrup mix into the pumpkin, whilst whisking so that it emulsifies into the mix properly. Give the bowl and brown butter pan a scrape down with a spatula, to make sure everything's mixed together.
- Add the breadcrumbs into the mix, then stir to combine.
Baking & Serving
- Pour the pumpkin filling into the blind baked pie crust then bake (at 160°c/320°f) for 45-50 minutes, until the filling is set, with a very slight wobble.
- Once baked, let the pie cool to room temperature then chill in the fridge overnight.
- Once set, use a sharp knife to cut the pie into pieces then leave to sit at room temperature for 20 minutes before serving. Or warm for 20-30 seconds in the microwave but be careful not to melt the filling.For the cleanest slices, wipe your knife clean between cuts.
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1. To Bake In An Aga - Blind bake the tart on the floor of the roasting oven. Bake the filling in the baking oven, on the bottom set of runners, with a cold plain shelf slid onto the top set of runners. Use the boiling plate to brown the butter.
2. Storage - This tart needs to be stored in the fridge and is best eaten within 3 days. You serve this dessert cold but it's best served at room temperature or warmed in the microwave for 20-30 seconds, to take the chill off. Make sure not to overheat the slices though as the filling will melt.
3. Pumpkin - This recipe has been developed using tinned pumpkin puree, so it's what I'd recommend using. I used America's finest brand pumpkin but other brands of solid packed pumpkin puree will work too. This just means that the tin contains 100% pumpkin.
4. Pie Crust - I used my flaky pie crust recipe for this dessert but feel free to use your preferred 9" crust. The pie dish that I use is 9" wide and 1.5" deep.
5. Golden Syrup - Golden syrup is a key ingredient in treacle tart, so there's not really a substitute for it in this recipe. However, it is sold in most supermarkets.
6. Treacle - Black treacle adds a rich, caramel flavour to the filling and the slightly bitter flavour cuts through the sweetness from the syrup. If you can't get hold of black treacle, molasses will work but has a slightly more bitter flavour.
7. Breadcrumbs - I use a sliced brioche loaf for my treacle tarts but buns will work too. Make sure not to blitz the crumbs too finely, they should still be quite coarse. There's a visual guide to this in the post above.
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