Bourbon-Caramel Pumpkin Tart

Are you interested in an alternative to pumpkin pie this year? Don't get me wrong – I love ANYTHING pumpkin, but sometimes it's nice to try something new. When I saw this recipe featured on the cover of the October/November 2013 issue of Fine Cooking magazine, I couldn't wait to try it. The cornmeal crust sounds a bit strange but the flavor works nicely with the rest of the dessert. Although this recipe is a bit labor intensive, it is not difficult to make. Happy Thanksgiving!

Crust Ingredients:

1 1/3 cup flour

6 tablespoons fine cornmeal

1 tablespoon sugar

½ teaspoon kosher salt

½ cup (1 stick) cold, unsalted butter, cut into ½ inch cubes

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1 tablespoon ice water

Combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. Using your fingers, rub the butter pieces into the dry ingredients until the mixture looks like coarse meal. Combine the egg, egg yolk, and ice water in a small bowl and then add it to the mixture in the medium bowl, just until the dough starts to come together. (If the mixture seems too dry, add another tablespoon of ice water.) Empty the bowl onto a piece of plastic wrap and then gather it into a tightly wrapped disk. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured space until you have a 13-inch circle. Slowly and carefully transfer the dough to a 9-inch springform pan. Press the dough gently into the bottom and sides of the pan. The dough should be ½ inch below the rim of the pan and the edges will look ragged. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes, or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and position the rack in the bottom third of the oven. Prick the bottom of the crust all over with a fork. Line the crust with parchment paper and then fill with dried beans or pie weights before baking for 15 minutes. Remove the parchment paper and beans, then continue to bake the crust for another 10 minutes. Leave the oven on and let the crust cool on a wire rack while you make the caramel.

Caramel Ingredients:

½ cup packed light brown sugar

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into ½ inch pieces

½ teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup heavy cream

¼ cup bourbon

Cook the brown sugar, butter, and salt in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir until the sugar melts/dissolves, anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes. When you start to smell caramel, you know you are getting close. Slowly whisk in the cream and continue to stir, as the sugar will seize up and harden. In 7 to 9 minutes everything should be smooth again and starting to thicken slightly. Move the pan off of the burner to add the bourbon, then return it to the heat and whisk for another 2 minutes. Turn off the burner, leave the pan in place, and transfer about 1/3 cup caramel to spread evenly on the bottom of the cooled crust. Chill the crust in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes to set the caramel. The remaining caramel stays in the pan on the cooling burner for later use.  Note:  Your caramel should look darker than mine on the finished product - see item number 2 under "Mistakes I Made" toward the end of this post.

Filling Ingredients:

4 oz. cream cheese*, softened

1/3 cup packed light brown sugar

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons pumpkin purée

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¾ teaspoon ginger

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

pinch of kosher salt

½ cup half-and-half

* If you have any homemade cream cheese left that I blogged about a few weeks ago, this would be the perfect recipe in which to use it.

Beat the cream cheese and brown sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg and then the egg yolk, followed by the spices, beating until well combined after each addition. Mix in the half-and-half and then slowly pour the filling into the crust. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the filling has puffed slightly and the surface no longer looks wet. Cool on a wire rack for approximately 1 hour. The remaining caramel can be warmed over low heat to make it pourable again. Spread it evenly over the tart and then wrap in plastic wrap to chill for at least 4 hours before serving. Unhinge the springform pan, transfer the tart to whatever you want to serve it on, and enjoy.

Mistakes I made:

1. After wrapping the dough into a disk and before chilling the first time, I realized that I had forgotten to add the salt. I dumped the dough back into the bowl, added the salt, and mixed it in as quickly yet thoroughly as possible before proceeding according to the recipe. (No one seemed to notice any ill effects.)
2. The recipe in the magazine says that cooking the brown sugar, butter, and salt for the caramel should only take about 5 minutes. I cooked mine for at least 7 minutes before I started to see any melting of the sugar. However, I added the cream before all of my sugar had melted and so next time I will wait a bit longer to do so.
3. I was pressed for time in making this dessert to take to some friends' house, so I did not let the tart cool for a full hour before adding the remaining caramel and I did not chill the finished product for a full 4 hours. This did not affect the flavor but it did have a slightly negative effect on the texture in that the caramel did not completely set. (Again, no one but me seemed to notice.)

Note: The original recipe calls for candied pumpkin seeds to decorate the outside edge of the tart. While this sounds like a lovely addition, I chose not to add them in the spirit of simplifying things. Also, my husband and son eat all baked pumpkin seeds on sight so there was little chance of any surviving long enough to make it onto the tart.

With a few minor changes, this recipe was taken from the October/November 2013 Issue 125 of Fine Cooking magazine on page 80 by Tara Smith, head pastry chef at The Standard Baking Co. in Portland, Maine.