We love pumpkin chiffon pie, and make it every year, but this year we did a little switch up and made pumpkin ricotta tarts with whipped ricotta instead of meringue and whipped cream. What a treat! It is kind of like a cross between a chiffon pie and a cheesecake, much lighter than regular pumpkin pie, but not quite as airy as a true chiffon. We made cute little individual tartlets on crispy graham cracker crusts and topped everything with those fabulous praline pecans & pepitas. Dessert anyone?
Have you tried whipped ricotta? It is super easy to do and it works so well in both savory and sweet dishes. Serve it with a little drizzle of honey with toasted country bread, or work it into your next roasted mushroom dish. A dollop would be amazing on creamy mushroom soup!
But, back to the pumpkin tarts … make the crust, filling and praline nuts ahead of time, but don’t fill the tarts until two hours before serving. You want to keep the crust nice and crispy. The recipe can be made in several stages too, since you first make the pumpkin custard and then chill it before folding in the whipped ricotta.
Be sure to use non-stick tart pans. Even then, we sprayed the bottom with cooking spray to make removal from the pans as easy as possible! You can also serve them right in the tart pans, which is the easiest of all! So don’t fret over it, just do what is easiest in the moment!
If you find yourself short on time, you can make simple parfaits with the pumpkin custard and extra whipped ricotta! Garnish with a cinnamon stick.
Pumpkin Ricotta Tarts with Pecan-Pepita Pralines
Equipment
- 10 mini nonstick tart pans
Ingredients
Graham Cracker Crust
- 2 cups graham cracker crumbs
- 4 tbsp. butter, melted
Pumpkin Ricotta Pie Filling
- 1 envelope unflavored gelatin (1 oz.)
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp. allspice
- 1/4 tsp. ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp. cardamom
- 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 3/4 cup whole milk
- 1 cup canned pumpkin purée, or fresh pumpkin cooked and puréed
- 2 lightly beaten egg yolks
Whipped Ricotta
- 1 1/2 cups fresh ricotta, whipped until fluffy and smooth, divided
- 1 tbsp. milk or cream
- 1 tbsp. pure maple syrup
- 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
Instructions
Graham Cracker Crust
- Preheat oven to 350 ° F. Spray the bottoms and sides of the tart pans with cooking spray.
- Mix graham cracker crumbs and melted butter. Stir until well-incorporated. Pat mixture in the bottom of each of the mini tart pans.
- Place the tart pans on a baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes, or just until the crust begins to turn slightly brown. Remove from oven and cool completely.
Pumpkin Ricotta Pie Filling
- Combine gelatin, sugar, salt, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, ginger, and milk in a saucepan. Whisk to blend and bloom the gelatin. Stir in the pumpkin and egg yolks. Whisk together. Cook and stir over medium heat until the mixture comes to a boil and continue on a low boil for about one minute longer. Mixture will thicken as it cooks and more so as it cools.
- Remove from heat, cool to room temperature. Once cooled, chill in the refrigerator until the custard is cold and set.
- Meanwhile, place the ricotta and 1 tbsp. milk or cream in the bowl of your standing mixer and beat until light and fluffy, approximately 3-4 minutes. Add maple syrup and vanilla and continue to whip until incorporated. (Ricotta does not get completely smooth like whipped cream does, so you will still have some texture to the whipped ricotta.)
- Gently fold whipped ricotta into the pumpkin custard and stir until blended. Refrigerate this mixture until ready to assemble the tarts.
Assembling Tarts
- When ready to assemble, spoon pumpkin filling evenly into each of the tart pans with the graham cracker crust. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
- Spoon a dollop of reserved whipped ricotta on top of each tart and garnish with praline pecans & pepitas. See recipe link above and in notes below for the praline pecans & pepitas.
I’m wondering what happened to the pumpkin and egg yolks in your recipe. You describe making custard with gelatin (no water or liquid in that mix?!) and then there’s whipped ricotta, but no mention of when to add pumpkin to the custard? Help me out here!
Hi Kate! Thank you for your comment and questions! We are so sorry about any confusion. Before I wrote back I wanted to make it today, since it’s a recipe we haven’t made in a while. Short on time I didn’t make the crust, but rather made parfaits with the custard and whipped ricotta! I’ve added those pix to the blog post.
Here are the missing parts to the puzzle:
Combine gelatin, sugar, salt, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, ginger, and milk in a saucepan. Stir to blend and bloom the gelatin. Stir in the pumpkin and egg yolks. Whisk together. Cook and stir over medium heat until the mixture comes to a boil and continue on a low boil for about one minute longer. Mixture will thicken as it cooks and more so as it cools.
Please let us know if you try the recipe! We’d love your feedback, once you’ve made it!
Happy Thanksgiving 🍂