Pumpkin Meringue Tarts with Whole Wheat Shortbread Crust
These mini pumpkin tarts are a delicious offering for your Thanksgiving dessert table! Made with no refined sugar, the creamy custard filling is nestled into a buttery whole wheat shortbread crust, and topped with an airy toasted maple meringue. It’s next-level pumpkin pie!
Hi everyone! Did you all have a good weekend? I am finally home from my whirlwind travel week and so happy to be here. It’s time to nestle in and plan our Thanksgiving menus! I’m talkin’ pie, peeps!
I came up with this recipe alllll the way back in summer. I have to tell you, it felt really strange making pumpkin pie in July. But this is how things work in the magazine world, I guess!
Yes, magazine! These adorable little tarts are part of a 3-pie feature in Delicious Living‘s November issue.
That’s my famous Apple Walnut Tart on the cover. It’s gluten- and dairy-free, but you won’t even notice what’s missing because it’s so bomb. You’ll find the recipe for it, as well as an incredible gluten-free, dairy-free, refined sugar-free Mile-High Pear Cranberry Crumb Pie that made my husband weak in the knees. And of course these little cutie-pies too.
But before I give you the lowdown, I just want to introduce you to Delicious Living, just in case you aren’t already familiar. Delicious Living is a print and digital publication. They also have a fabulous website. Their focus is on supporting natural, healthy, and organic living. You can pick up a copy of their magazine at thousands of retail stores, including Whole Foods and Sprouts. They love to encourage people to cook recipes made with all-natural ingredients, and they promote do-it-yourself, from-scratch cooking, so if you like the kinds of recipes I post here on Baking a Moment, you’d probably really enjoy their magazine too! If you’re down, you may even enjoy their newsletter. You can sign up for it here 😉
Now let’s talk tarts! The pumpkin filling here is comfortingly familiar. It’s got all the warm fall spice and creamy pumpkin goodness you and your guests crave, along with wholesome ingredients like eggs and cream. There is no canned milk in this recipe. There is no evaporated milk, no sweetened condensed milk. The sweetness comes from a new-to-me ingredient called “succanat,” which is just a less-processed version of the natural cane sugar I already know and love. I adored the full-bodied, slightly smoky flavor it brought to this dessert, and I have a feeling I’ll be using a lot more of this ingredient in the future! It’s a cup-for-cup substitute for regular sugar as well as coconut sugar, so if you’d prefer to use either of those, you can.
The crust is where it’s at though. It’s super-buttery and tender, made with nutty whole wheat pastry flour, and only has 3 ingredients, + a pinch of salt. I kinda think it makes the whole dish. But that toasted maple meringue is pretty rockin’ too!
The mini-tarts can be made a day or two ahead, but I’d recommend making and toasting the meringue just before serving. That way it’s as tall and fluffy as can be. Plus it’s really cool to pass that torch around and let everyone toast their own tart. So much fun!
If you don’t already have a kitchen torch, I love this kind
, and you can also get mini tart pans here
.
Have a great week everyone! xo
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Pumpkin Meringue Tarts with Whole Wheat Shortbread Crust
Ingredients
For the Shortbread Crust
- 2 1/4 cups (270 g) whole wheat pastry flour
- 1/3 cup (53.33 g) sucanat or coconut sugar
- 3/4 cup (170.25 g) unsalted butter, (1 1/2 sticks)
- 3/4 teaspoons (0.75 teaspoons) kosher salt
For the Pumpkin Filling
- 1 cup (245 g) pumpkin puree, (approx. 1/2 a 7.5 ounce can0
- 1/2 cup (100 g) sucanat , (or coconut sugar)
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3/4 teaspoon (0.75 teaspoon) ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon (0.25 teaspoon) ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon (0.25 teaspoon) kosher salt
- 2 large eggs
- 3/4 cup (178.5 ml) heavy cream
For the Maple Meringue
- 2 egg whites
- 1/8 teaspoon (0.13 teaspoon) kosher salt
- 1/4 cup (0.02 ml) pure maple syrup
Instructions
Make the Shortbread Crust
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Place the flour, sucanat or coconut sugar, and salt in a bowl, and cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
- Press/knead the mixture with your hands until it forms a ball.
- Divide the dough into 6 equal portions, and press each into the bottom and up the sides of 4 ½-inch mini tart pan.
- Place the mini tart shells on a baking sheet, and fill with Pumpkin Filling.
Make the Pumpkin Filling
- Place the pumpkin, sucanat or coconut sugar, cinnamon, ginger, salt, and cloves in a bowl and stir in the eggs until incorporated.
- Whisk in the cream, and pour about 3 ½ ounces of filling into each of the 6 tart shells.
- Bake for 30 minutes, or until the edges of the tarts are golden and the filling is set.
- Cool completely, then top with Maple Meringue just before serving.
Make the Maple Meringue
- Place the egg whites and salt in a large mixing bowl and whip on medium-high speed until the mixture holds soft peaks.
- With the mixer still running, carefully pour in the maple syrup in a slow, thin stream.
- Continue to whip until the meringue holds stiff peaks.
- Divide evenly between the 6 baked and cooled tarts, then toast with a kitchen torch, or in a 400 degree oven for about 8-10 minutes.
My Mom gets the “Delicious Living” at Hannafords in Ellsworth Maine and saves them all for me….I LOVE THAT MINI MAGAZINE. I have been inspired and have made wonderful things out of it.
This recipe is up my alley. Perfect for thanksgiving as mentioned…but also anytime! I have a trick to a more sturdy crispy crust:
If you reduce the butter by approx. 3 Tbsp…and sub 1 Tbsp maple syrup (or enough syrup so the mixture JUST starts to come together when you take a fistful), it will bake crispier and sturdier (instead of crumblier). And reduce fat profile a little bit.
This has worked 100% of the time…even with crumb toppings.
Thanks for sharing. Having company tomorrow…i think I may put this on the dinner menu!
Thanks so much for the great tip Dolores! Have a great time with your guests tomorrow. I hope everyone enjoys the tarts! Thanks for reading!
These would be fantastic for Thanksgiving! Love the pumpkin and meringue combination!
Oh I loved it too Sabrina! You’re so right- these have Thanksgiving written all over them. Thank you so much hon!
Howdi Allie. I’m wondering if you think this would work as one big ole pumpkin tart. I don’t have individual tart pans but I do have a pretty tart pan for a regular size pie. Let me know if you’ve tried it that way. Thanks! Lovely pies by the way.
Thank you so much Julie! I haven’t actually tried it, but I think it would work just fine. You may just need to adjust the bake time slightly, and it’s possible there might be more crust and filling than you actually need. I’m not sure what size your pan is, so I can’t say for sure if that would or wouldn’t be an issue. Just keep an eye on it and make sure to take it out of the oven when the edges are set and the center is still just slightly jiggly. I hope that helps! Good luck and enjoy!
What a champion idea! Everyone always want to taste all the pies, but man oh man that is a challenge. So why not have tarts! What a fab example of a tart that has a some flash—kind of a party tarty tart. Okay that’s lame, but I’m liking it. Slips off my ‘tongue’ like I am sure your tarts would.
Lol right! I love the party tart idea. Thanks so much Carol! xo