Pumpkin Spice Tartlets- One Bowl Recipe!
When fall is upon us, we are all in the presence of the upcoming holiday, Thanksgiving!
There isn't a single Thanksgiving where pumpkin pie wasn't served. It is probably one of our favourite desserts for fall, and probably for most North Americans too. We just love pumpkin spiced food- lattes, teas, breads, cookies, muffins, cakes, soups, mashes and casseroles!
Last year we gave you pumpkin cake... this year, we give you... VEGAN PUMPKIN SPICE TARTLETS!!!
We wanted these pumpkin tarts to be as close to the "real" thing, or from what you remembered. We love this recipe so much because it is easy, fast and full of healthy benefits.
You can eat them within 40 minutes of coming out of the oven, which is frigg'n amazing, because no one wants to eat cold and "moist" pastry from the fridge. Yes of course; if you love cold pumpkin tarts, by all means, put them in the fridge. But we are fans that they don't need a long time to set, like most vegan pumpkin pie recipes do.
If you watched our video from last year on How To Make a Vegan Apple Pie, than you are a master with pastry now and will have no problem making the pastry for this recipe.
And the coolest part of all about this pumpkin tart recipe is that we used a chia egg as the binder and to help firm up the filling. Isn't that clever?! We sure think so.
To watch Roz make them, click here!
For the Crust:
Makes 12 tartlets or one 9" pie
Oven @ 350 degrees F
* Want to know how to make pastry, click here to watch Lo teach you!
2 1/2 cups Unbleached All Purpose Flour 2 tbsp. White Sugar 12 tbsp. Vegan Butter, cold! 4 tbsp.Shortening, cold! 6-8 tbsp. Ice Cold Water, or as needed
Whisk all dry ingredients together and place in freezer till cold. Once dry ingredients are cold, add the vegan butter and shortening. Use your fingers to rub the fat with the dry till it resembles course crumbs. Drizzle little by little the ice water and stir with a fork till pastry comes together. Place on counter and kneed the dough ten times or till well combined. Cut into two disks. Wrap pastry discs and place in freezer for one hour to relax and harden.
For the filling, you will need:
1 cup Pumpkin Puree
1/4 cup Maple Syrup
1/4 cup Chia Egg- 1/2 cup water plus 1 1/2 tbsp chia seeds blended till smooth and sit for 10 minutes
1/4 cup Plant based Milk- We used soy
1/2 tsp. Vanilla
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1/4 tsp. Ginger
1/4 tsp.Nutmeg
1/2 tsp. Salt
Sprinkle of Cloves & Fresh Ground Black Pepper
2 tbsp. melted Coconut Oil
2 tbsp. Cornstarch
Mix all the ingredients till well incorporated and smooth!
Make sure there are no lumps remaining from the cornstarch.
Set aside.
Assembling Tarts:
Once pastry is chilled and ready, roll out just one of the disks of pastry a 1/4 inch thick and cut with desired cutter to fill tart pan. -*Feel free to keep the other disk of pastry in your freezer for other pastry delights, or make double the filling to have more pumpkin tarts!
Place pastry into pan and make sure there aren't any cracks and the pastry comes to the top of the tin. -*Any filling that spills out will make the pastry stick to the pan and make it difficult to come out of the pan once cooked.
Fill the tarts with filling with about 2 tbsp.
Place in the oven for 45-50 minutes. You are looking for the filling to have firmed up to the touch, and the pastry has browned to a lovely golden colour.
Carefully remove tarts from the pan and cool on a rack for 40 minutes.
Voila!! You have pumpkin tarts for Thanksgiving. You can serve it with coconut whip or vegan vanilla ice cream.