Easy Pumpkin Pie With Filo Pastry (Bulgarian Tikvenik)
This mouth-watering pumpkin pie is a Balkan delicacy, made with a light and juicy pumpkin-based filling, rolled in filo pastry and baked to perfection. Typically, this pie is served as a snack or a dessert.
Equipment
- 24 cm Springform baking pan
Ingredients
- 1 pack filo (phyllo) pastry
- 4 cups grated pumpkin
- 50 g butter
- 1/2 cup sunflower oil
- 200 g walnuts
- 250 g sugar
- 1/3 cup dried cranberries
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
- icing sugar for dusting
Instructions
Make the pumpkin filling
- Cut the pumpkin into large pieces. Peel the skin and remove the pulp and the seeds. Grate the pumpkin on a large grater.
- Transfer the grated pumpkin to a bowl and sprinkle salt over it. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and let the pumpkin release juice for 10-15 minutes, then squeeze the juice out.
- Chop the walnuts into small pieces.
- Heat 1 tablespoon of cooking oil in a large saucepan on medium heat. Add the grated pumpkin and saute for 5 minutes or until the pumpkin is soft. Stir occasionally.
- Remove from the heat. Add the sugar, cinnamon and vanilla. Stir until the sugar dissolves.
- Add the dry cranberries and 1/2 of the walnuts and stir to combine.
Assemble the Pumpkin pie.
- Spread one sheet of filo pastry on your working surface. Brush it lightly with melted butter and line another pastry sheet on top to double it and make it stronger.
- Spoon 3-4 tablespoons of the pumpkin filling along the short end of the pastry and drizzle a little bit of honey on top of the filling. Roll the filo pastry with the filling inside a couple of times, then sprinkle chopped walnuts, sugar and cinnamon over the open part of the pastry and continue rolling it with the filling and the walnuts inside. Make as many rolls as you can with the rest of the filo pastry and pumpkin filling. Assemble the pie from the wall to the centre of the baking pan. Press the assembled pie with your hand on top to make sure it is well-packed in the baking dish. Brush it with melted butter.
Cook the Pumpkin pie.
- Preheat a conventional oven to 180°C/356° or a fan oven to 170°C/338°F.
- Bake the pie in the middle of the oven for 40-45 minutes.
- Take the pie out of the oven and sprinkle it with water. Cover it with a clean tea towel and let it rest. When completely cooled, you can sieve icing sugar on top of the pie to decorate it.