Savory Butternut Squash Carrot Tart Rested Before Slicing

Savory Butternut Squash Carrot Tart Rested Before Slicing keeps the shopping list focused on g whole wheat flour, g pastry flour, and kosher salt. It serves 6 people.

Count on 45 minutes of prep, 2 hours of cooking, about 2 hours from the first measurement to the plate.

Ingredients Method

What goes in the bowl

For the Whole Wheat Crust

• 95 g whole wheat flour
• 30 g pastry flour
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ⅛ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 85 g unsalted butter cubed, cold
• Ice Cold Water

For the Butternut Squash Carrot Tart Filling

• 1 medium butternut squash
• 336 g carrots approximately 4 large, 7 small, peeled and sliced
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon Harissa spice I used Whole Foods brand
• ¼ teaspoon Hungarian paprika
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 252 g evaporated milk
• 2 eggs

Caramelized Onions

• 96 g unsalted butter
• 1 ¾ tablespoons olive oil
• 3 ½ pounds yellow onions
• 1 ¾ teaspoons sugar
• salt and pepper to taste

Browned Butter

• 57 g unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon fresh sage

How the cooking goes

To make the Crust

1. Blend the whole-wheat flour, pastry flour, salt and black pepper in a food processor. Sprinkle the cubed butter on top. Pulse until large chickpea sized pieces remain (it helps to keep the butter larger than peas with the food processor method because you find that otherwise the butter works into the dough too much by the time the water has been added).
2. Put several tablespoons of water at a time through the chute of the food processor, and pulse after each addition. Open the lid to check the consistency after each addition. Once the dough looks crumbly, dump it out onto the counter. Gather the dough and press it away from you with the heel of your hand until it comes together. This technique is called fraisage. If it is stubbornly crumbly, add a touch more water by wetting your hands before fraisage.
3. Once it comes together, pat it into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 45 minutes to overnight.
4. You can watch a tutorial on this method here.

To roast the vegetables

1. Pre-heat oven to 350°F with the allocated sheet pan inside the oven.
2. In a mixing bowl combine the squash, carrots, salt, Harissa, paprika, and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Spread vegetables on the pre-heated sheet pan and roast for 40-60 minutes, stirring now and then, until the carrots and squash can easily be punctured with a fork.

To caramelize the onions

1. Melt butter and olive oil in a Dutch oven or non-reactive pan over a moderate flame, stirring as needed.
2. Put onions, stirring to coat. Spread them out in as even a layer as possible, sprinkle with sugar and cook, stirring as needed to keep the onions from sticking.
3. Continue to cook until the onions are soft and smell fragrant and sweet. You want them to be a beautiful dark brown. It takes almost an hour but is a mostly passive task.
4. Take it off the heat, add salt and black pepper.

Roll out tart shell and par-bake

1. While the vegetables roast and onions caramelize, roll out your tart shell to ⅛ inch thick and line a 9-inch tart shell or a pie dish. Refrigerate at least 20 minutes before trimming the edges.
2. Remove vegetables from the oven and increase the oven temperature to 425°F. Line the chilled tart shell with baking paper and fill with baking weights or beans. Bake in pre-heated oven for 15 minutes and then remove the parchment and beans. Continue to bake until the shell begins to brown and the bottom no longer looks raw, approximately an additional 10 minutes. Lower the oven back down to 350°F.

Make the filling

1. While your tart shell par-bakes, make your filling! In the food processor, combine the roasted vegetables and evaporated milk. Process until the texture looks smooth. Taste and add additional salt and pepper as needed. You can also add more Harissa at this point if you want it a little spicier! Add the eggs and process until the texture looks smooth.
2. Tip into warm tart shell and smooth the surface with an offset spatula (Or don’t. No one will know the difference.) Carefully drop the caramelized onions onto the surface of the tart, leaving a little gap, so that you can see the filling in places.
3. Bake 30 minutes at 350°F or until the center is no longer liquid. Cool completely before cutting.

To make the browned butter

1. In a small saucepan melt the butter over a lively flame. Once your butter is melted add the sage.
2. Continue to cook over a lively flame, swirling occasionally, until the butter has taken on a nutty aroma and you can see little brown bits at the bottom of the pan. Pour into a bowl or the butter will continue to cook in the pan.
3. Drizzle the browned butter over the whole tart or serve with each slice. Store extra browned butter in the refrigerator then then warm it in the microwave prior to serving.
4. The tart can be re-warmed in a 350°F oven. It is best served warm.

After it comes off the heat

Let the pan settle before you slice, so the crumb stays together. Cover leftovers once they are cool.

If you want another plate from Pies and tarts, open Hazelnut Pear Tart Rested Before Slicing and Shoofly Pie in a Pastry Shell.