Pumpkin Tart with Bourbon Caramel

While at the grocery store the other day I saw the new “Fine Cooking” magazine.  In case you didn’t already know this, I am a huge sucker for magazines and I am always on the look-out for new things to try.  There are several that are my magazine favs, one of which is “Fine Cooking”.  They always seem to have great recipes that I can tweak to make more my own that suits the tastes of my family.  Other magazine favorites include “Gourmet” and “Bon Appetit”, and “Southern Living”.  I really like the ones that are geared more to the gourmet side not the basic “use all these processed foods to make something that is almost homemade”.  Don’t mis-understand me, those recipes have their place and I would rather see someone use those than hit the fast food joint for a “meal”.

So what drew me to this months edition of Fine Cooking?  It was the cover photo!  A delicious looking pumpkin, caramel tart!  Wow, a delicious looking photo on the cover will definitely sell magazines!  I remember many, many, many years ago, Bon Appetit had a photo on their magazine of a cheesecake with cranberry compote.  I love that recipe and it has been a holiday staple around our house ever since!  It is delicious and clean tasting (thanks to the cranberry’s) without the “thick” taste left in your mouth like so many cheesecakes can leave.  Sorry, I digress!  Since my husbands birthday was quickly approaching, I decided to get this issue because I thought this might become his birthday “cake”.  I showed him the cover photo and I was right, he was all for it.  I followed the recipe exactly as it was written and there are just a few changes I would make the next time I bake this dessert.

1).  Use more corn syrup to make the candied pumpkin seeds.  Also, make more candied pumpkin seeds.  Maybe carmelize the corn syrup to make the candied pumpkin seeds.

2).  Use my own pie crust recipe.  Click the link to get the recipe.

3).  Definitely make double the amount of bourbon caramel.  One recipe isn’t enough!

The dessert was a huge hit.  We had friends over and they both loved it.  I’m thinking this may be replacing the sweet potato pie this year for Thanksgiving dessert!