Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pasties – Sweet and Savory

He had never had any money for sweets with the Dursleys, and now that he had pockets rattling with gold and silver he was ready to buy as many Mars Bars as he could carry — but the woman didn’t have Mars Bars. What she did have were Bettie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans, Drooble’s Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs. Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Licorice Wands, and a number of other strange things Harry had never seen in his life. Not wanting to miss anything, he got some of everything and paid the woman eleven silver Sickles and seven bronze Knuts. Ron stared as Harry brought it all back into the compartment and tipped it onto an empty seat.
“Hungry, are you?”
“Starving,” said Harry, taking a large bite out of a pumpkin pasty.
Ron had taken out a lumpy package and unwrapped it. There were four sandwiches inside. He pulled one of them apart and said, “She always forgets I don’t like corned beef.”
“Swap you for one of these,” said Harry, holding up a pasty. “Go on –“
“You don’t want this, it’s all dry,” said Ron. “She hasn’t got much time,” he added quickly, “you know, with five of us.”
“Go on, have a pasty,” said Harry, who had never had anything to share before or, indeed, anyone to share it with. It was a nice feeling, sitting there with Ron, eating their way through all Harry’s pasties, cakes, and sweets (the sandwiches lay forgotten).

 – Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Making friends with food is the first lesson you learn in school

I’ve always felt that sharing food is one of the best ways to make friends. Think about how many friends you made in grade school when you swapped items from your lunch box. That’s friend-making 101 and that’s exactly why your mom packed those extra Teddy Grahams in your lunch box. She didn’t leave those bad boys all for you, those were Grade-A friend-making currency.

How about now? You want to tell me you don’t want to make the effort to be friendlier to the person who showed up with fresh baked goods at your last study session/work meeting/book club? And, don’t you dare tell me that you’ve sat across from someone that you hate sharing the same plate of nachos; It just doesn’t happen.

Harry’s first introduction to making a friend was sharing his Pumpkin Pasties and other sweets with Ron Weasley on his first train journey to Hogwarts. It’s the moment that you know Harry finally has the opportunity to forge the love and friendship he has been lacking in his first 11 years with the Dursleys, and one of my favorite moments from this series.

Just like the confection found on the Hogwarts express, these Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pasties are a magical treat to be shared with new and old friends alike.

Sweet and savory fillings for your gluten-free pumpkin pasties

I always assumed that the Pumpkin Pasties in Harry Potter were a sweet confection akin to pumpkin pie. Afterall, the first introduction we had to them was when Harry bought them aboard the Hogwarts Express alongside his haul of other wizard candy confections. However, I really wanted to experiment with a savory filling too because I thought these would make a spectacular main dish for dinner. In the end, I chose to make two fillings for these Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pasties; one sweet and one savory.

Pumpkin pie is actually my favorite dessert of all time, so the sweet filling I dreamed up is filled with all of the traditional delicious pumpkin pie spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, and vanilla but it also contains a creamy mascarpone cheese that really takes these to another level. These beauties are just begging to be eaten for brunch or consumed with a crisp glass of eggnog around the holidays.

The savory filling I put together includes a rich and hearty mix of Italian sausage, herbs, gruyere, and cheddar. Because it’s July, soup is not in a regular rotation at my house, but I am definitely looking forward to eating these alongside many bowls of creamy soup this fall.

Gluten-free pastry dough struggles

I went through more batches of pastry dough than I care to admit before landing on this one. Let me tell you how fun making endless batches of pastry crust is on a 96-degree day in a 1930’s house fitted only with window AC units (nowhere near the kitchen). It wasn’t the most delightful experience.

I started with three different batches of pie crust. The first crust was flavorful, but couldn’t hold the filling without breaking. The second crust held the filling really well, but was bland and cardboard-like. The third was moderately tasty, but was just too thick and dense for my goal. I didn’t just want an adequate pastry crust, I wanted a tasty pastry crust that would not only hold up well, but was also tasty enough to nibble on sans-filling. Afterall, what’s the point of a pastry crust if its only job is to hold the filling?

I gave myself a single day off from the pastry dough before I jumped back into the kitchen with a new plan for these Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pasties. I needed a bit more patience and a lot more butter.

A better gluten-free pastry dough requires butter and patience

Bob’s Red Mill makes a great gluten-free pie crust mix that they’ve helpfully adapted into a puff pastry on their website, and that is what I used for this Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pasties recipe. The process to make any type of puff pastry takes a bit more than 20 hours but is incredibly simple to make. Don’t let the process time scare you off! The majority of this is chill time in the fridge between each fold, not the actual time you’ll spend in the kitchen. Start this dough a day or two ahead of when you need it and you’ll be in business for some of the best buttery, flaky gluten-free layers anyone has ever had on Pumpkin Pasties before.

If you’re not interested in making your own puff pastry, geefree makes gluten-free puff pastry sheets that you can purchase pre-made. I have not tried these yet though, so I cannot vouch for how well they perform.

UPDATE:

The photos of Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pasties currently in this post are those made with geefree gluten-free puff pastry sheets. As you can see, the lamination is limited compared to traditional puff pastry. This is a good option for those who are completely gluten-free who do not want to put the time into making homemade puff pastry. However, I prefer the Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free recipe because it produces a laminated (layered) dough closer to traditional puff pastry.

If you are not gluten-free, there are endless options for pre-made puff pastry sheets and you can easily swap those in on this recipe.

Pro Tip

No matter what type of dough you use, it’s important that you allow the filling to cool before adding it to the chilled dough. If you add hot filling to the dough you will almost certainly end up with melted, unstable dough that is difficult to work with and full of holes for the filling to ooze out of. For the savory Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pasties, I pre-cook the sausage rather than using raw so I don’t have to worry about the pastry dough over-baking in order for the meat to reach adequate internal temperature. Room temperature filling is fine, cold is better, so feel free to make your filling ahead of time and chill in the fridge before rolling and filling your dough. If your pastry begins to soften to the point where it’s hard to work with, pop it in the freezer for a few minutes to firm up.

A note for special diets

These Pumpkin Pasties fit gluten-free diets and the filling contains no refined sugars.

HOWEVER –

The Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free puff pastry recipe contains a negligible amount of refined sugar cane in the pastry mix (2g per serving of mix). The geefree gluten-free puff pastry sheets also contain a negligible amount of sugar in their pre-made sheets (1g per 1.5oz serving).

LOOKING FOR MORE HARRY POTTER CONTENT?

I’m celebrating Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling’s birthdays on July 31st by filling the month with all things Potter. Check back regularly this month to see additional Harry Potter recipes and content linked HERE.

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