Australian Pumpkin Pies
In this recipe we made a herbaceous pumpkin pie - Australian style! It took some taste testing, but we figured out the right seasoning at the end.
Ingredients
2 pumpkins (we used Butternut & Hokkaido)
1 package go soft goats cheese
1 roasted garlic bulb
balsamic vinegar
sage
thyme
peanut oil
salt, pepper
Method
Start with infusing the oil. To a pan add peanut oil, sage and thyme. Heat to around 90 degree then let sit off the heat till oil has cooled down.
Cut pumpkins in half and scoop out the seeds. Then cut a cross hatch in the flesh and pour the infused oil and salt over the pumpkin. Cover with aluminum foil and place in a 200 degree Celsius preheated oven for 1.5 hours, remove foil and cook for another 30 minutes uncovered.
Once pumpkin is cooled scoop out flesh into a bowl. If a bit of pumpkin skin gets mixed in, no problem. Also don’t forget to save any juice that might be left in the baking dish after baking the pumpkin.
Add pumpkin flesh to a food processor and blend till smooth. You may need to do this in a couple of batches depending on how big your food processor is and how much pumpkin you used.
At this point you could add anything you wish. I added salt, pumpkin baking juices, goat cheese, roasted garlic, fresh sage, sage and thyme infused oil, pepper and balsamic vinegar.
Make sure the mixture isn’t too runny once all the ingredients have been added.
Cut out puff pastry to the size of the pie tins you are using. The bottom piece should be bigger than the diameter of the tin.
Grease the tin with butter and lay the puff pastry in the tin, make sure the the pastry is in contact with the bottom of the tin and there is no air bubbles.
Fill with the pumpkin mixture.
With a wet finger go around the rim of the pastry and add the top piece. Make sure the top and bottom pastry have a good seal to prevent any blowouts.
Brush the top with a beaten egg and cut a small vent hole in the centre of the pie.
Place in a 200 degree Celsius fan forced oven for around 15 minutes or until the top is golden.
Remove from oven and turn out pies onto a wire rack. Immediately add flakey salt to the top.
Let cool slightly and enjoy.