Thanksgiving may be our favorite holiday here at the market; it’s the ultimate food holiday and it brings people together over steamy stuffing, a beautiful bird, and the perfect pumpkin pie. We have some pretty incredible products on offer in the days leading up to the holiday weekend, from free-run and organic turkey’s to mini pumpkin mousse desserts and a Pie Bake Off in support of the Calgary Interfaith Food Bank just to name a few. And because we’re always trying to offer our incredible guests something new and delicious, we have an incredible recipe to share with you. Inspired by Smitten Kitchen, we have a easier-than-pie-dough no-can pumpkin tart that is better than the average, run-of-the-mill pumpkin pie, but tasty enough that even pumpkin pie purists will love it. With freshly roasted pumpkin purée, rather than the canned pumpkin, this tart is fresh, vibrant, and yummy to boot.
Market-Sourced Ingredients
Crust
2 large molasses ginger cookies from Yum Bakery
16 graham crackers
1/4 cup salted butter, melted
Cheesecake Batter
125g of cream cheese, well softened from Blush Lane Organics
3 Tablespoons (40 grams) granulated sugar
1 large egg yolk
Pumpkin Batter
1 good-sized pie pumpkin from Souto Farms
1 large egg
1 large egg white
1 1/4 cups pumpkin purée
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
1/4 cup (50 grams) brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon table salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon from Silk Road Spice Merchant
few fresh gratings of nutmeg from Silk Road Spice Merchant
250g crème fraîche from Blush Lane Organics
DIRECTIONS:
Roast Pumpkin
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Slice pumpkin in half and remove the seeds and guts. Cut pumpkin into large slivers, rub with olive oil and sprinkle with cinnamon. Roast for approximately 30-45 minutes, or until the pumpkin flesh is soft to the touch. Let cool completely and blitz the flesh in a processor to make the pumpkin purée.
Make crust
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Finely grind the molasses ginger cookies and graham crackers in a food processor (you’ll likely need to do the graham and ginger cookies separately). Add the melted butter, and process until the cookie- crumb mixture is moistened. Press the mixture firmly into the bottom and up the sides of a 9- inch- diameter tart pan with removable bottom. Place pan on rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Make Cheesecake Batter
Mix together the ingredients in a small bowl until smooth.
Make Pumpkin Batter
Beat the egg and the egg white lightly in a mixer with sugars, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Gradually whisk in the pumpkin and then the crème fraîche.
Assemble Tart
Pour the pumpkin batter into gingersnap-graham crust. Carefully dollop the cheesecake batter over pumpkin batter, then marble the two together decoratively with a knife. Try not to pierce the bottom crust as you do. Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bake for another 40 minutes, or until the puffed up centre doesn’t jiggle freely.
To Serve
Cool the tart completely on a rack. Serve when cool or refrigerate until Thanksgiving dinner when it can be served to prying eyes and full tummies; they’ll make room for this tart, it’s just that good. Theoretically, the leftovers will keep for several days, but the crumb crust will soften on the bottom as times goes by.
