Gluten Free Bourbon Caramel Pumpkin Tart

Ingredients for Bourbon Caramel Pumpkin Tart

I only have two pastry recipes; pie pastry and tart pastry. Pie pastry is often referred to as flaky and is used to make pies. Tart pastry is more like shortbread. It has a buttery flavour, fine texture and the crust should be crisp and crumbly like a cookie.

• Gluten free tart pastry - Recipes get hard to read when you include pastry, filling and garnish. This is my gluten free tart pastry recipe or use your favourite tart pastry. Not pie pastry.

• Brown sugar, butter & whipping cream - The essentials for caramel sauce. Whipping cream should be 30-36% fat.

• Bourbon - It's gluten free and people love recipes that start with the word bourbon.

• Cream cheese & egg - For a delicious creamy filling avoid low fat cream cheese.

• Canned pumpkin puree - Not pumpkin pie filling.

• Cinnamon, ground ginger & nutmeg - The popular spice combination called pumpkin spice. You should have the spices in your cupboard so don't buy them again as a combo.

• Cream, coffee cream or half-and-half - Look for something with 10-18% fat.

• Optional Garnish: Candied sweet & salty roasted pumpkin seeds, click the link for this recipe.

See recipe card for exact amounts.

Instructions: Bourbon Caramel Sauce

Pastry chefs make caramel sauce by caramelizing sugar. It's can quickly burn so this easy recipe melts the butter and sugar together from the start. Just follow the recipe and then pour it into the pre baked crust.

Variations: Crustless Pumpkin Cheesecake

Like so many tart recipes there is a little too much filling for the tart. This filling needs to be baked so I make individual portions like you see below. If you just served these ramekins, without pastry, it would be a fabulous dessert and no one would know it was from a tart recipe. I'd call it Crustless Pumpkin Cheesecake. Extra points if you make this easy caramel sauce or the bourbon version.

Get The Tools

To make fancy desserts you’ve got to buy the fancy pans. Tart pans have a removable bottom and they come in all shapes and sizes. Here are a few examples of my pans and how I use them.

• A 9-inch round tart pan for a typical size dessert tart that would fit on most normal serving platters.
• The big 12-inch tart tin for a large fruit tart to feed a crowd. I also use it, without the edge part, to make my Fruit Pizza and Cookie Pizza.
• My long, narrow rectangular tart pan is nice for an unusual presentation but you need a serving dish for that shape.
• 3-inch or 4-inch size individual tart tins are fancy to make a tray of small tarts or to use up the last bits of pastry when you’re making something else.
• I also have a 9-inch square pan with removable bottom that has higher sides than a traditional tart pan. I use it to assemble my Raspberry Brownie Ice Cream Cake and sometimes to make a square Cookie Pizza.

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