A tart to make at home to slide slowly into the sweet calm of autumn. But with that bit of panache that keeps us awake and ready for new adventures
The days get shorter, the temperatures fall, the blue of the sky fades towards a drizzly gray. Is theAutumn which advances, with its melancholy and fascinating appearance. Because the colors of the season of the fall of the leaves, all turning to brown and reddish, will certainly be less vivid than the summer ones, but give off warmth, a desire for hugs, a desire to regenerate and crouch on the sofa watching TV, listening to good music, reading a book. And maybe eating something sweet, a comfort food that we can prepare at home with the specialties of the new season.
Pumpkin, chocolate and salt tart
There pumpkin it is certainly among the vegetables that most represent autumn. For this reason we have chosen it for our dessert. And then here is the pumpkin tart, chocolate and salt, perfect for welcoming the new season because it is full of energy and able to give strong emotions with every bite. A rib rich in contrasts like autumn, capable of dispensing still summer flashes alternating with thunder blows and the coolness of the rain. And so is the chromatic and sensorial contrast between dark chocolate and pumpkin: a downhill path that from the blue of the sea always alive in our memories guides us now through the orange of the leaves that embrace us on a walk in the woods, while the darkness of the night is always longer and more intense, like dark chocolate. The air we breathe is soft, with that hint of sparkling that is given by the presence of salt in the tart, a surprise ingredient that shakes us from torpor, gives us the charge, makes us feel ready to face a new adventure. Whatever it is.
Ernst Knam's recipe
Ingredients for 8 people
Time: 4 hours and 20 minutes
Difficulty: medium level
For the pastry with cocoa
200 g flour 00, 125 g soft butter plus a little, 125 g sugar, 40 g powdered cocoa powder, 5 g baking powder, an egg, vanilla pod, salt
For the chocolate cream
150 g custard, 90 g chopped dark chocolate, 60 g fresh cream
For the pumpkin cream
110 g oven-baked pumpkin pulp, 100 g persipan (marzipan of bitter almonds or armelline), 25 g amaretto liqueur
To complete
peeled pistachios, Maldon salt
Method
Cocoa shortcrust pastry
Work the chopped butter well with the sugar by hand, then add the egg, a pinch of salt and the seeds scraped from half a vanilla pod. Knead well until a homogeneous mixture is obtained. Add the sifted baking powder, flour and cocoa together and knead until you have a compact shortcrust pastry. Wrap it in cling film, then let it rest in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
Chocolate cream
Bring the cream to the boil, then pour it over the chopped chocolate collected in a bowl. Stir until smooth and shiny. Let it cool. Mix the custard and chocolate ganache.
Pumpkin cream
Work the persipan or marzipan with your hands to soften it, then add, a little at a time, the pumpkin pulp, stirring constantly: in this way the mixture will be smooth and without lumps. Finally add the amaretto liqueur working with the whisk. Roll out the short pastry about 3-4 mm thick and use it to line a mold (ø 18 cm, h 5 cm) buttered. Trim the edges (keep the excess, you can use it to make biscuits), fill the mold with the cream of pumpkin up to about half the height, cover with the chocolate cream and complete with the pistachios. Bake at 180 ° C for about 40 minutes. Take it out of the oven, let it cool completely, then turn it out of shape.
To complete
Spread the Maldon salt flakes on the surface only at the last moment to prevent the humidity of the cake from melting them.
Pumpkin desserts
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