November 14, 2025

Occasionally, as a personal chef I encounter folks who don’t care for pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving. Pumpkin spice as a flavor, yes, but no to pumpkin custard in a pie crust.

Here’s a recipe for a little bit of spiced pumpkin and a lot of sweet and tender buttery crumbs. Pumpkin butter is a seasonal treat perfect chiefly for  desserts but just as tasty in salad dressings and with roasted meats. Notably, substitute pumpkin butter in any recipe calling for apple butter.

Pumpkin butter is seasonal – buy plenty to last through the winter.

My tart calls for gluten free flour (I like King Arthur Measure for Measure), but regular all purpose flour works well. Freeze the crumb base to make spreading your filling easier.

This tart may be nut free – here I use finely chopped pecans .

This crumb crust is versatile in that you can make a hundred tarts with a hundred different fillings like jams and fruit spreads and even dulce de leche. In essence, virtually any sweet tart filling.

The addition of ice cream is entirely unnecessary but does boost the nutritional profile!

So if your aversion to pumpkin pie extends to all things pumpkin, by all means bring out the chocolate ganache as your filling of choice!

Pumpkin Butter Crumb Tart

recipe by Michele Humlan, The Good Eats Company

makes 6 servings

ingredients

1 ¼ cup gluten free flour blend * – I like King Arthur Measure for Measure
¼ cup cane sugar
1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter at room temperature
¼ teaspoon each fine sea salt and ground cinnamon
finely diced pecans, about ¼ cup – optional for nut free
1 scant cup pumpkin butter at room temperature
* regular all purpose flour works well, too

directions

1. Combine flour, salt, cinnamon and sugar in mixing bowl.
2. Use clean hands to cut in small bits of the butter, or use pastry cutter,
3. Add pecans and toss well, setting aside about one fourth in the fridge.
4. Place rest of the crumbs onto the bottom and slightly up the sides of a greased 8 inch tart pan.
5. Freeze the crust about 30 minutes.
6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
7. Spread pumpkin butter onto the tart crust, nearly to the edges.
8. Top with refrigerated crumbs and bake for about 35 minutes or until edges are golden brown and crumb topping appears dry.
9. Allow tart to sit at room temp at least 30 minutes for ease of cutting servings.
10. May be made several days ahead, with storage at room temperature in a cool spot.