pumpkin brie and pine nut tart

Butternut pumpkin, brie, rosemary and pinenut tart

by in Food 0

Who loves brie cheese!?  Who loves pastry!?  If your answer is yes, then you need to bake this butternut pumpkin, brie, rosemary and pine nut tart!!  I was looking for a delicious new tart flavour for an Australia Day party, and thought “hey, why not throw all my favourite ingredients on some pastry and see what happens”, and luckily the combination was perfection!!  They were gone in minutes!!

To make things even better, they were super easy to make!

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Ingredients (makes 2 large tarts, or 12 pieces)

  •  2 sheets frozen puff pastry (thawed)
  • 1 egg (for brushing)
  • 1 butternut pumpkin, chopped and thinly sliced
  • Fresh rosemary
  • 1 small wheel of brie cheese, thinly sliced
  • Pine nuts
  • Salt and pepper

Method

  •  Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees celsius.
  • Place thinly sliced butternut pumpkin on a tray lined with non-stick baking paper – drizzle with olive oil and rosemary and bake for 10 minutes.  Remove from the oven.
  • Place each sheet of pastry on a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper.
  • Fold over  1cm edge on each side of the puff pastry to make a border around the edge of each sheet of pastry.  Press the edges down with a fork.
  • Gently prick the pastry all over with a fork
  • Lightly brush the edges of the pastry with egg.
  • Fill the pastry with pastry weights, and bake for 10 minutes.
  • Remove the pastry from the oven, and remove the pastry weights.
  • Top each tart with the pumpkin, brie, pine nuts additional rosemary.  Sprinkle with sea salt flakes and pepper.
  • Bake each tart for a further 10 minutes.
  • Allow to cool, and slice each tart into 6 pieces.

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Enjoy!!   Happy Australia Day!!

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Halloween Cookies

by in Food 0

Australia is very slowly embracing halloween.  I remember being about 8 years old, cutting two holes in an old sheet, smearing my mother’s blue eye shadow all over my face and traipsing over to my neighbour’s house, plastic bag in hand, shouting “trick-or-treat” at the top of my lungs.  After my mother spending about 15 minutes attempting to explain the concept of halloween to my elderly neighbours, they finally relented, but sadly all they had were some apples and a bag of prunes.  Not the magical haul of chocolate and lollies my 8 year old imagination had been dreaming of.

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`These days it’s different – halloween is catching on…..so I decided to yet again embrace halloween (I might even destroy another perfectly good bed sheet to make a new ghost costume).

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I saw this pumpkin chocolate chip cookie recipe on The Butter Half Blog, and had to give it a whirl!!  In Australia, pumpkin usually is for savoury purposes….but I can certainly get on board with pumpkin flavoured desserts!!

The only change I had to make was the tinned pumpkin.  In Australia, it’s really difficult to find canned pumpkin….instead I bought a butternut pumpkin and cooked and pureed it (which didn’t take long at all – just allow time for the pumpkin puree to cool before you start).

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup canned pumpkin (or pureed cooked butternut pumpkin)
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 1/4 cup sour cream
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon cloves
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup chocolate chips

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 Celsius. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Mix together the pumpkin, sugar, butter, sour cream, egg and vanilla extract in the bowl of a stand mixer on medium speed for about 1 minute. Add the baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and salt to one cup of flour. Add it into the wet mixture, thoroughly mix, then add in the remaining cup of flour. Pour in the chocolate chips until everything is well mixed.

3. Use a cookie scoop or spoon to drop a small mound of dough (about the size of a golf ball) on the cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes on 375°F. Allow to cool for 5 minutes, then serve warm.pumpkin-3-copy

 

They’re pumpkiny….chocolatey…. what more could you want!?  Do you love halloween?  Who has a costume idea that’s not a sheet with two holes in it!?