Kids will love these little, nutritious pumpkin pies with a dollop of good quality ice-cream as a special Halloween pudding treat almost as much as adults will love them served warm with a dollop of stem ginger cream - delicious!

Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Cooking Time: Approximately 30 minutes

For the pastry:
Shop bought, mini sweet shortcrust pastry cases (approx 8 - 10)

For the filling:
450 g/1lb prepared weight pumpkin flesh, cut into 1in/2.5 cm chunks
2 large eggs plus 1 yolk
10 fl oz/275 ml double cream
3 oz/75g soft dark brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¬Ω level teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg
¬Ω tsp ground allspice
¬Ω tsp ground cloves
¬Ω tsp ground ginger

For the ginger cream:
200ml/7fl oz double cream
3 tbsp stem ginger syrup from a jar
25g/1oz stem ginger from a jar, finely chopped

Pre-heat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.

To make the filling, steam the pumpkin then place in a coarse sieve and press lightly to extract any excess water.Lightly whisk the eggs and extra yolk together in a large bowl.Place the sugar, spices and the cream in a pan, bring to simmering point, giving it a whisk to mix everything together. Then pour it over the eggs and whisk it again briefly.Add the pumpkin purée, still whisking to combine everything thoroughly.

Pour the filling into the mini pastry case and bake for 25 - 30 minutes.Remove tartlets from the oven and place on a wire cooling rack.

For the ginger cream, place the double cream, syrup and stem ginger into a bowl and whisk until soft peaks are formed when the whisk is removed.