Pumpkin Flan
·
Serves 6-8
There’s the best of Italy and the USA in this elegant
dessert. For more of an American flavor add half the amount of nutmeg as well
as half a teaspoon each cinnamon and ground ginger, plus a quarter teaspoon of
ground cloves and allspice.
Ingredient
·
500g butternut pumpkin, peeled, seeds removed, grated
·
2 cups (500ml) milk
·
435g packet Careme vanilla bean short crust pastry
·
1 cup (100g) almond meal
·
1/2 cup (110g) raw sugar
·
30g unsalted butter, softened
·
1 tsp ground nutmeg
·
3 eggs, lightly beaten
·
2/ 3 cup (100g) pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
·
1cup (220g) caster sugar
Pumpkin Flan
Recipe
1. Toss pumpkin
with 1 tsp salt and enclose in a muslin cloth or clean Chux. Place in a
colander and set aside for 4 hours, squeezing every hour to remove liquid.
2. Place drained
pumpkin and milk in a pan over medium heat and bring to the boil. Reduce heat
to medium-low and cook, stirring occasionally, for 35 minutes or until a
thickened puree.
3. Preheat oven to
180°C. Grease a fluted 35cmx11cm rectangular loose-bottomed tart pan. Roll
out pastry until 5 mm thick, then use to line pan, trimming excess. Chill for
30 minutes. Line with baking paper and fill with pastry weights. Bake for 10
minutes, then remove weight sand paper. Bake for a further 2-3minutes until golden.
4. Whiz almond meal
and raw sugar in a food processor to a powder. Transfer to abowl. Fold in pumpkin
puree, then stir in butter and nutmeg to combine. Cool slightly, then add eggs
and stir to combine.
5. Pour mixture into
flan case. Bake for 40minutes or until pastry is golden, filling is set and a skewer
inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool flan in pan.
6. Meanwhile, line a
baking tray with baking paper and place pumpkin seeds in the centre. Combine
caster sugar with 2 tbs water in a pan over medium-low heat and stir until
sugar dissolves. Increase heat to medium-high, bring to the boil, then
cook,with out stirring, for 6 minutes or until light golden. Pour over pumpkin
seeds and set aside until toffee has set.
7. Break pumpkin
seed toffee into shards and sprinkle over the sliced flan to serve.
