Pumpkin-Walnut-Tarte

Yepp...it`s pumpkin season!
Timo and me drove into the countryside, south of Hamburg, to buy some different pumpkins.
My idea was just the pumpkinsoup I made a week ago.
But when I put the "small" pumpkins on my kitchenscale, I had to realize: They are muuuch more heavier than I thought.
I made a whole huge pot of soup, put most of it in the freezer, and I still had two Hokkaido and two Butternut left.
So I made a pasta-sauce out of one Butternut.

So, now I still have more than the half of what we bought!
A friend of us from Switzerland, Zora, told me I should make a pumpkintarte. Why not?
It is easy to do and tadaaaa!...here it is!



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PUMPKIN-WALNUT-TARTE
28 cm diameter - tarte pan

INGREDIENTS
Dough (Shortcrust)
>> 250 grams flour
>> 50 grams icing sugar
>> 125 grams cold butter, cutted in little pieces
>> 1 egg (big)
>> little bit of milk
>> some oil or butter to  grease the pan

Filling
>> 500 grams pumpkin (pealed and diced)
>> 500 ml milk (full-fat)
>> 200 grams cane sugar
>> 1 vanilla bean
>> 2 eggs (big)
>> 3 TBSP sugar
>> 1 hand full of walnuts
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Preparing the dough:
NOTICE: All ingredients must be as cold as possible. I normally put the flour into the refrigerator the day before. If you can`t, no problem. You can wash your hands very cold, too, and so on.

>> Sieve icing sugar & flour onto a workplate
>> Just with your fingertips, knead the butter carefully into the flour (until u have crumbles)
>> Add eggs and a little shot of milk
>> Knead all together as quick and carefully as possible until it is a rough dough (no problem if you see  some butterflakes still)
>> sprinkle with flour, press it down to a thick plate, wrap it into foil, put into fridge for 30 minutes.
>> grease the pan
>> roll dough out (on a floured plate) until 5 mm thickness
>> put into greased pan, press it into form and cut off the overlapping dough
>> prick a few times with a fork
>> wrap in foil , put into fridge for 30 more minutes

>> preheat the oven: 180°C  (356°F)

Preparing the Filling:
>> put pumpkincubes, milk, vanilla bean (vanilla pulp and bean separated) and cane sugar into a pot
>> let it boil softly, stir steadily
>> let it simmer until pumpkin is soft (~30 minutes)
>> put out vanilla bean, purée all together with a blender.
>> Let it cool down

Preparing the Caramelized-Nuts-Topping:
You can do that while the pumpkin is boiling
>> Put sugar into a pan
>> heat softly, wait for the sugar getting golden and liquid (that takes time, be patient)
>> if you see, that all is liguid, quickly put the nuts into it, stir stir stir until every nut is caramellized and put them onto a plate

Dough:
>> Cover dough with baking paper, fill with lenses or rice until full
>> Bake for 10 minutes (called "blind-baking")
>> Take out baking paper with rice/lenses and bake for 10 more minutes
>> take out, let cool down
>> put down oven on 160° C (320°F)


>> Mix eggs a few minutes into pumpkinsauce with a blender
>> fill into tarte pan
>> bake for 30 minutes
>> take it out and immediately spread the nuts over it. They should sink down a litle bit. If not, softly press them just to combine it with the filling
>> let cool down

ENJOOOOY!
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