Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onion Burekas

This is a seasonal twist on classic burekas that I wrote up for alma. (check out their site for the full article). The caramelized onions are the key ingredient in this dish; they always take longer than you think to caramelize, but the resulting flavor is worth the work. This makes a great side, appetizer, or snack during the holidays.

Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onion Burekas

Makes 24 burekas

Ingredients:

2 sheets puff pastry (10” x 15”), defrosted in the refrigerator overnight

1½ lbs. butternut squash (1 large squash), halved lengthwise and seeds removed

1 large yellow onion, medium diced

2 tablespoons olive oil or butter

1 big fat clove of garlic or 2 medium-sized, minced fine

1 teaspoon ground coriander

2-3 sprigs thyme, leaves removed from stems

Pinch of cayenne pepper

Salt and pepper, to taste

1 large egg yolk

Black and/or white sesame seeds, to garnish

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F.
2. Drizzle the halved butternut squash with oil, then place it cut-side down on a sheet pan. You don’t need to peel the squash. Roast until the squash is fully cooked and tender, about 35-45 minutes.
   
   
   
3. While the squash is baking, caramelize your onion by putting a few tablespoons of butter with a drizzle of olive oil in a sauté pan over medium low heat. If keeping the dish non-dairy, use just olive oil. Add the diced onion to the pan, and sauté over low or medium low heat until starting to soften, about 5 minutes. Season with a generous pinch of salt and then continue to let the onion cook and caramelize, stirring occasionally so the onion doesn’t burn; make sure to keep the heat fairly low. This is where patience comes in, beautiful caramelized onions can take 30-45 minutes to make. You want your onions golden and sweet, you don’t need to caramelize them until they’re a deep brown. This is a good tutorial if you need it.
   
4. Add the minced garlic to the caramelized onions, and sauté for another 2-3 minutes or until the garlic is fragrant but not at all browned. Turn off the heat.
5. Once the squash is cooked and slightly cooled, scoop the inside of the squash into a bowl and discard the peel. Add the caramelized onion to the squash. Mix together. The mixture should be soft and not too lumpy.
6. Mix in the ground coriander, thyme, and cayenne. Taste, and then season with salt and pepper as desired. Allow the squash mixture to cool before assembling the burekas. You can make this filling up to two days in advance and store in the fridge.
7. To assemble the burekas: roll out a sheet of puff pastry until rectangular and just slightly thinner than when it comes out of the package. Divide the dough into 12 squares: cut the dough in half widthwise, and then cut each half into half again. Next, cut the dough into thirds lengthwise. Put a spoonful of the filling into each square. Fold over the dough to form a triangle shape, and press the edges together. There’s no need to crimp or press too hard, the filling will stay put, and you want to ensure there are layers of flaky pastry.
   
8. Transfer the formed triangular burekas onto a baking sheet, place each bureka about an inch apart, 12 will fit on each baking sheet. At this point, you can freeze the burekas and reserve them for when you’re ready to bake.
   
9. Before baking, combine the large egg yolk with a small splash of water. Beat well. Brush the tops of the burekas with the egg wash. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.
10. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown and flaky. Transfer to a wire baking rack, and allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving. Burekas are best served warm or at room temperature.

Mushroom and Goat Cheese Tart

Whether you're looking to make a substantial vegetarian dish for your Thanksgiving table, or whether you just love making savory tarts any time of year, this recipe is super easy, delicious, and endlessly modifiable.

Yes, it uses store bought puff pastry. In terms of pre-made things, puff pastry and phyllo dough are two of things I prefer to buy already made. They're complicated and time consuming pastry to make at home, and there are excellent versions of both at the market.

In the picture above I made the tart without egg and creme fraiche/sour cream. The egg and cream will bind the mushrooms a little better, but frankly, I didn't mind it with the mushrooms coming apart a bit. It tasted more mushroomy. If you do use the egg binder, then make sure you're mixture isn't too wet or your tart will get soggy.

If you're not a mushroom fan, you can take the same principles for making this tart, and make it with a combination of any other kind of filling: roasted squash and fennel, sautéed zucchini pepper and feta, potato leek... you get the idea. Basically, you want the filling to be mostly or partially cooked, so that you're really just putting the tart in the oven for the pastry's sake.

You can check out a video of this recipe on our Thanksgiving Pies series over at The Assembly Line . You can also follow us on Instagram or Facebook for weekly recipes and videos.

Mushroom Goat Cheese Tart

Makes one tart, serves 6-8

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 shallots, sliced thin

1 lb. mushrooms, sliced thin (crimini, oyster, hen of the woods, chanterelles or

whatever is available)

3 cloves garlic, minced fine

splash of sherry vinegar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

freshly ground pepper

¼ cup sour cream (or creme fraiche)

1 medium egg

⅓ cup goat cheese, crumbled (or to taste)

2 sprigs thyme, leaves removed from stem

1 sheet puff pastry, thawed and cold

chopped chives, for garnish

Preheat oven to 400°F.

In a large skillet, add the butter and olive oil. Add the sliced shallots to the butter and oil. Stir and let the shallots heat up for 2 minutes, until just fragrant and slightly softened. Add the mushrooms to the shallots, and cook until the mushrooms are softened and the moisture has evaporated, about 5-6 minutes. Add the garlic and sherry vinegar to the pan and sauté for an additional 1-2 minutes. Season generously with salt and pepper. Transfer the mixture to a bowl, and allow the mushrooms to fully cool.

In a small bowl combine the sour cream and egg until the egg is fully incorporated. Add the sour cream mixture to the cooled mushroom mixture in the bowl, stir until fully combined.

Roll out your puff pastry so that it is larger in size than a large dinner plate. Using the dinner plate upside down as a stencil, cut a circle out of the puff pastry. Using a smaller salad plate, gently score an inner circle inside of the larger puff pastry circle. Using a fork, gently poke the inner circle of the puff pastry.

To assemble the tart-

Add the mushroom mixture to the inner circle of pastry. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the mushrooms, any extra liquid can remain in the bowl. Top with goat cheese and thyme. Brush the outer edges of the pastry with egg wash.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the pastry is browned and fully cooked.  Once fully cooked, top with fresh chives. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Pumpkin Spice Latte Pie

Photo by Eric Slatkin

I've recently been a part of  launching a new stop-motion digital How-To series called Assembly Line. We started out making sandwiches, and now we're  launching our Thanksgiving videos. We're doing a series on pies, both savory and sweet, to celebrate fall's best day.

I've never been the biggest fan of pumpkin pie, even though I love pumpkin and I love the spices that go into it. Most of the pumpkin pies I've had or made are a little too one-note or too bland for me. When we started thinking about doing a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, we knew we wanted to do something a little different.

The inspiration for this recipe is the beloved (controversially?) ubiquitous "Pumpkin Spice Latte." If people could love a drink this much, maybe coffee was this missing flavor in the pie? 

Adding just a small amount of espresso to the mix adds a note of depth and complexity to the pie. Have you ever added instant espresso to chocolate cake or brownies? It enriches the chocolate favor. Here, it enriches the overall flavor and you can taste a hint of the nutty bitter coffee been. I also add the espresso to the whipped cream. I love the flavor of coffee, and it definitely enhances the whipped cream, but it's not essential if you don't want too much coffee in your dessert. Although,  it helps liven things up after a rich heavy meal.

Different pumpkin pie recipes use different types of ingredients. A lot include sweetened condensed milk, but I often find those recipes too sweet. Some use just milk, some use cream, and here I'm using both milk and cream, in addition to some of the other familiar ingredients. The resulting texture is silky and smooth. For me, this pie has the right density; it's not too flimsy and not too firm. This is my new go-to pumpkin pie recipe, and I hope you enjoy it, too.

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Pumpkin Spice Latte Pie

Makes 1 pie

for the crust-

1¼ cup all purpose flour (I like King Arthur Brand)

1 tablespoon sugar

½ teaspoon kosher salt

½ cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cubed

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

3 tablespoons ice cold water

for the filling-

1¾ (15 oz.) cups pure unsweetened pumpkin purée

½ cup brown sugar

¼ cup granulated sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

1-2 tablespoons instant espresso powder (1 or 2 depending on desired intensity, I use Medaglia D'oro brand)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground ginger

¼ teaspoon ground allspice

⅛ teaspoon ground cloves

few gratings of fresh nutmeg (about an ⅛ teaspoon)

1 cup heavy cream

⅓ cup milk (I use whole, but any kind works)

3 large eggs

espresso whipped cream-

1 cup heavy whipping cream

2 teaspoons instant espresso powder

2 teaspoons sugar

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400°F (205°C).

for the crust-

To a food processor, add the flour sugar and salt. Pulse a few times to combine the mixture. Add the cubed butter to the dry ingredients, pulse until pea-sized pieces of dough are formed.  (You can use a pastry cutter or just your hands to combine the butter if you do not have a food processor).

To the dough, add the apple cider vinegar and 1 tablespoon of water at a time. Pulse until the dough comes together but is still crumbly and not too wet. It should stick together between your fingers when squeezed, if it doesn’t add another tablespoon of water. Roll the dough into a disc that’s about an inch thick - this will make it easier to roll out into a circular shape. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least one hour.  

Onto a lightly floured surface, roll the pie dough out until you have a 12-inch even circle. Carefully transfer the dough into a 9-inch pie tin. Lightly press the dough into the pan. Trim any overhanging crust. Decoratively crimp the edges of the crust with your fingers, or you can decorate the edges with the tines of a fork.

for the filling-

Combine the pumpkin purée, brown sugar, granulated sugar, espresso powder, salt and spices in a large bowl. Whisk in the cream and milk, then whisk in the eggs. Pour filling into prepared pie crust.

bake the pie-

Place the pie in the oven for 15 minutes at 400°F. After 15 minutes, lower the heat to 350°F and bake for 35-45 more minutes (it's super important to start off at a high temp and then lower - if you stay at 400 the crust will get burnt and the filling won't cook properly), or until a toothpick inserted into the batter comes out mostly pumpkin-free. A little pumpkin and dampness is fine, but you do not want super loose pumpkin batter on it. Also, you will be able to tell if the pumpkin is done by the amount it jiggles in the pan. You only want the slightest wobble in the center of the pie.

If the crust starts to get too brown, you can cover the crust edges with aluminum foil and continue to cook the filling.

Once cooked, let the pie cool on a rack completely. Refrigerate once the pie has cooled, and serve either cool or at room temp.

for the espresso whipped cream-

While the pie is cooling, prepare the whipped cream. Combine all of the ingredients in a large cool bowl. Using an electric mixer or a whisk, beat everything together until stiff peaks form. Be careful not to over-whip your cream.

to serve-

Top the pie with the espresso whipped cream. Garnish with ground cinnamon and/or more espresso powder. Slice and serve!