October marks an incredible milestone – 20 years of The Bertinet Kitchen Cookery School in Bath. To celebrate, Richard will be welcoming dear friends and great chefs such as Matt Tebbutt, Sat Bains, Jonny Bone, Lisa Goodwin-Allen, José Pizarro, Valentine Warner to a series of unforgettable classes – where attendees can cook, learn and be inspired. To mark the occasion there’s also a new anniversary edition of Richard’s much loved book Dough [available 2026] – so, what dish would be more fitting for our October edition than Richard’s delicious recipe for Pumpkin Pie.
Pumpkin Pie
The filling for this pie is inspired by Auntie Julia | 1 quantity of pastry see recipe below
4 eggs
75g dark brown sugar
195g caster sugar
425g (1 can) unsweetened pumpkin puree
½ tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground allspice
½ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ tsp ground mace
¼ tsp ground star anise
30g melted butter
330g double cream
Preheat the oven to 160°C
Roll your pastry out to 3 to 5 mm thickness, using a little flour to ensure it keeps moving on the surface and is not sticky. Line a 25cm tart ring or case and cover with baking parchment and then baking beans. Blind bake the case with the beans in for 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the beans and return to the oven for another couple of minutes.
Combine all the filling ingredients in the order given, ensure that the spices are well incorporated.
Pour the filling into the blind baked tart shell and bake for 45 minutes until set. If baking in smaller 10cm shells, bake for 20 minutes.
For the Pastry
50g pumpkin seeds, ground to flour in a cup blender, sift out any larger pieces of seed
300g plain flour
125g butter
1 whole egg and 2 egg yolks
125g caster sugar
Pinch salt
To make the dough by hand
Measure out all your ingredients before you start and break your egg into a small bowl – there is no need to beat them, separate the remaining eggs. Put the flour and salt into a mixing bowl. Now for the cold butter; What I do is take it straight from the fridge and put it between two pieces of greaseproof paper or butter wrappers, then bash it firmly with a rolling pin. The idea is to soften it, while still keeping it cold. I end up with a thin, cold slab about a centimeter thick that bends like plasticine. Put the whole slab into the bowl of flour – there is no need to chop it up. Cover the butter well with flour and tear it into large pieces. Now it’s time to flake the flour and butter together – this is where you want a really light touch.
With both hands, scoop up the flour-covered butter and flick your thumbs over the surface, pushing away from you, as if you are dealing a pack of cards. You need just a soft, skimming motion – no pressing or squeezing – and the butter will quickly start to break into smaller pieces. Keep plunging your hands into the bowl, and continue with the light flicking action, making sure all the pieces of butter remain coated with flour so they don’t become sticky.
The important thing now is to stop mixing when the shards of butter are the size of your little fingernail. There is an idea that you have to keep rubbing in the butter until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs, but you don’t need to take it that far. Resist putting your hands back into the bowl to rub again – if you want a light pastry, it is really important not to overwork it. If the mixture starts to get sticky now, imagine how much worse it will be when you start to add the liquid at the next stage. Add the sugar at this point, mixing it in evenly. Tip the egg and the extra yolk into the flour mixture and mix everything together. You can mix with a spoon, but I prefer to use one of the little plastic scrapers that I use for bread-making. Because it is bendy, it’s very easy to scrape around the sides of the bowl and pull the mixture into the centre until it forms a very rough dough that shouldn’t be at all sticky. While it is still in the bowl, press down on the dough with both thumbs, then turn the dough clockwise a few degrees and press down and turn again. Repeat this a few times. With the help of your spoon or scraper, turn the pastry onto a work surface. Work the dough as you did when it was in the bowl: holding the dough with both hands, press down gently with your thumbs, then turn the dough clockwise a few degrees, press down with your thumbs again and turn. Repeat this about four or five times in all. Now fold the pastry over itself and press down with your fingertips. Provided the dough isn’t sticky, you shouldn’t need to flour the surface, but if you do, make sure you give it only a really light dusting, not handfuls, as this extra flour will all go into your pastry and make it heavier. When you flour your work surface, you need to do this as if you are skimming a stone over water, just giving out a light spray of flour. You need just enough to create a filmy barrier so that you can glide the pastry around the work surface without it sticking. Repeat the folding and pressing down with your fingertips a couple of times until the dough is like plasticine, and looks homogeneous. Finally, pick up the piece of pastry and tap each side on the work surface to square it off so that when you come to roll it, you are starting off with a good shape rather than raggedy edges.
To make the dough with a food mixer
Put the flour and salt into the bowl of the machine. Bash the butter as described in the hand-mixing method, then break it into four or five pieces and add it to the flour. Using a paddle attachment rather than a hook or whisk, mix the ingredients at a slow speed until the pieces of butter are about the size of your little fingernail. You will need to scrape the butter from the paddle a few times as it will stick. If you are making sweet pastry, add the sugar at this point and mix in well. Add the egg(s), and yolk (if making sweet pastry) and water (if making salted pastry) and mix very briefly, until a dough forms. As soon as it does, turn it out onto your work surface with the help of your scraper and follow the hand-mixing method.
To make the dough with a food processor:
It is very easy to overwork pastry in a food processor. Put the flour and salt into the bowl of the machine. Cut the cold butter into small dice and add to the bowl. Use the pulse button in short bursts so that the flour just lifts and mixes, lifts and mixes. You don’t want to blitz everything into a greasy ball as that will result in hard, dense pastry. If you are making sweet pastry, add the sugar at this point and mix in well. Add the egg(s), and yolk (if making sweet pastry) and water (if making salted pastry), then pulse briefly until the pastry dough comes together. Turn it out with the help of your scraper and follow the hand-mixing method.
Wrap the dough in greaseproof paper and leave to rest in the fridge for at least an hour before using.
Note: the dough can be kept for up to 10 days in the fridge or a few weeks in the freezer.
Note: The leftover pastry that you have once you have trimmed the finished pie can be used. It can either become the base of a cheesecake or be used as a crumb on a different dessert.
For cookery classes, information and Richard’s recipe books, visit thebertinetkitchen.com