Pumpkin Tart with Chocolate and Miso

A California Twist on a Martha Stewart Favorite

Happy Wednesday! I’m looking forward to some rainy CA weather (hopefully enough to put any fire risk to bed for the year here in Northern California). I’m also starting to game out my Thanksgiving cooking plans, so I can spread my long list of tasks out over a few days. While I’m sure your inboxes are already full of Thanksgiving ideas, I thought I’d add one more to the mix, a favorite that I hadn’t made in a few years but was reminded of when I watched the Netflix Martha documentary. (If you’re part of the food media echo chamber, and you’ve read way too many responses to the Martha doc, I apologize for adding one more. I promise this recipe is worth it.)

Also, some news: I launched a new Substack! Snacking Dinners is based on the idea behind my upcoming cookbook—that dinner can be fast, delicious, and also fun—and I’ll be sending out recipes about once a week. Check it out! I’d love your feedback!

(Note: If you like The California Table, please hit the Like button below or comment on the post—every little interaction helps others find the newsletter!)

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I’ve been a Martha Stewart fan for more than 30 years. When I was a tween, my favorite thing to do in the lead-up to Christmas was pull my mom’s copy of Martha Stewart’s Christmas off the shelf and flip through it, dreaming of the projects I could do, the gifts I could make, and all the holiday magic I could conjure. One year, I even made Martha-style gift baskets for my parents; instead of knitting throws and canning homemade jam, I hand-sewed felt bookmarks and made chocolate brittle.

Even after I grew up and became a magazine editor, Martha’s world still felt magical. I used marvel at the photos of perfect flowers in Living and at the stories of the enormous prop closets that the editors at the magazine had access to for photo shoots. (Over at Saveur, we crammed a few issues’ worth of props into cabinets in the conference/dining room and editors kept overflow under their desks and piled on their shelves. At the end of the year, I’d work on getting the food editor/photo stylist to sell as many old props as possible to beef up his [always in the red] budget.)

So, when I watched the Martha documentary a couple weeks ago, a whole lifetime’s worth of recipes and crafting ideas came flooding back to me. I’ll save most of these projects for Christmas, but there’s one I had to make immediately, because it’s perfect for fall and for Thanksgiving: Martha’s Pumpkin Tart with Chocolate Crust.

I first made this fall dessert, which came from Martha Stewart Living, in 2004, the very first time I hosted my own Thanksgiving dinner. My now-husband and I were living in a basement-level studio in Morningside Heights, Manhattan, and my brother, who was at Penn, came up for the holiday and slept on our pull-out couch. I made my first turkey (following the Silver Palate New Basics recipe my mom always used), plus potatoes with gravy, green beans, salad, and dessert. By the time the turkey was in the oven, I was so tired that I lay down and took a nap just a few yards from where my boyfriend and brother were watching a movie. (The fact that I’d quit my 9–5 job and was working long nights as a waitress probably didn’t help with my exhaustion.) I don’t remember much about that meal, which we ate at the coffee table, but I do remember that this tart was a hit. We loved it so much, in fact, that I made it again the next year, when I somehow crammed my moms, my aunt and uncle, and two cousins around a folding table in that same tiny apartment.

The recipe for that tart is no longer available on the Living website (or any official Martha site), but various bloggers re-published it in the years that followed. This year I decided to update the original a little to make it slightly easier: I simplified the crust by doing it in the food processor, used Greek yogurt instead of creme fraiche (since that’s what I usually have in the fridge), added a bit more sugar and nutmeg, and swapped the chopped baking chocolate for chocolate chips, since the stabilizers in the chips give you glossy chocolate without tempering. I also added a couple big scoops of miso, because if there’s one thing I’ve learned since moving back to California 12 years ago it’s that miso makes almost everything better.

The result is a little bit creamier and more custardy than the original, with a flavor that walks that fine line between sweet and savory, like your favorite sea salt chocolate chip cookies. Plus, it will make both the pumpkin pie lovers and chocoholics at your table happy.

Pumpkin Tart with Chocolate and Miso

For the Chocolate Crust
1 cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
½ cup cold butter
1 large egg
2 ounces (a little less than ¼ bag; or 1 big handful) bittersweet chocolate chips (you can sub milk chocolate if you want your dessert sweeter)

For the Filling and Topping
One 15-ounce can pumpkin puree
1 cup light brown sugar
¾ cup + 1 tablespoon plain Greek yogurt
2 tablespoons awase miso
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon salt
⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
3 eggs
3 ounces (a little more than ¼ bag) bittersweet chocolate chips (see note above)

Make the Crust

1. Put the flour, sugar, cocoa, salt, cinnamon, and cloves in a food processor and pulse to mix.

2. Cut the butter into small cubes, add them to bowl and pulse gently until the pieces are very small. Add the egg, and process the mixture just until it is uniform; the texture will be rough and sandy, and if you pinch some of the dough in your fingers it should stick together.

3. Turn the dough out onto plastic wrap, form it into a disk, and chill it for at least 1 hour (or up to a day).

4. Lightly flour a clean surface and a rolling pin, and roll the dough out to form a very thin circle 13” in diameter; as you roll, make sure the dough isn’t sticking to the counter, adding more flour underneath as necessary. Transfer the dough to a 11” tart pan with a removable bottom, gently press it into place, and trim off the top edges flush with the pan. The tart crust will shrink a bit as it cooks, so if you want to be sure the sides don’t shrink too much, you can gently press on them, to make them a little taller than the side of the pan. (If the dough doesn’t transfer well, or breaks in any place, just press some more into that space; it’s very forgiving.) Put the crust in the refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes.

5. While the crust is chilling, preheat the oven to 350℉. Prick the bottom of the crust with a fork, to keep it from bubbling, set it on a baking sheet, and bake it until it is just set, about 15 minutes (prick the bottom of the crust with the tip of a knife if it starts to bubble and rise up).

6. As soon as the tart crust comes out of the oven, scatter the chocolate chips over the bottom. As they melt, use the back of a spoon or a small offset spatula to spread the chocolate across the surface. Let the tart crust cool while you make the filling (or overnight)

Make and Bake the Filling

1. Preheat the oven to 350℉ (if it’s not already on from the crust).

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, brown sugar, yogurt, and miso, then season the mixture with the cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and cloves; taste and adjust the seasonings if you like. Add the eggs and whisk the mixture just until it is homogenous.

3. Transfer the filling to the cooked tart shell (still on the baking sheet) and spread it out evenly, making the surface as smooth as possible. Bake until the filling is just set in the center (doesn’t wobble) and the edges are set, about 35 minutes.

4. Let the tart cool to room temperature; the carry-over heat will continue to set the center of the filling.

5. When the tart has cooled, put the chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl and melt them, stirring and scraping the bowl every 20 seconds to keep the chocolate from burning; the chocolate should be very hot and fluid.

6. Transfer the chocolate to a small zip-top bag and cut a small hole in one corner. Quickly drizzle a zigzag of chocolate all across the top of the tart to create stripes, then rotate the tart 90° and do another zigzag in the opposite direction, to form a grid. (Alternatively, you can drizzle the zigzag onto the tart with a large spoon.) Let the chocolate cool to room temperature and firm up before cutting into the tart. (Any remaining chocolate can be spread out on a sheet of parchment paper; when it cools, chop it up and put it back in the bag with the chocolate chips.)

Thanksgiving Recipes From the Archives

If you’re looking for more things to fill out your Thanksgiving meal, check out Kato Banks’ Homemade Onion Dip, which is the perfect thing to set out for guests while you’re finishing up the main meal; the Bitter Greens and Citrus Salad, which is a perfect counterpoint to rich dishes like stuffing, potatoes, and gravy; Fanny Singer’s Caramelized Carrots with Lemony-Garlicky Yogurt, Pomegranate, and Pepitas, which adds a nice pop of color to the meal; and the Shaker Lemon Tart (I almost always make this one for Thanksgiving because my best friend’s father, Jim Poett, particularly loves lemon desserts).

And on the day after, don’t forget to make Lorraine Hee-Chorley’s Turkey Congee—it was the first recipe published in this newsletter, and I still think it’s one of the very best.

Photos/Video: Georgia Freedman