Spiced pumpkin pie, maple syrup parfait and pecan

Preheat the oven to 160°C/gas mark 3

For the pumpkin mousse, first make a pumpkin purée. Cut the pumpkin into wedges and score the flesh before coating with the spices. Pour over the butter

Place on a baking tray and bake for 90 minutes until the pumpkin is completely cooked, basting every 20 minutes. If the pumpkin begins to colour, cover it with tin foil. Blitz in a blender, pass through a fine sieve and season with a small pinch of salt

Bring the milk, cream and vanilla pod to the boil in a saucepan. Whisk the egg yolk and caster sugar together in a heatproof bowl. Pour the hot liquid onto the egg mix, whisk well to combine, then pour the mix back into the saucepan and bring to 80°C. Whisk constantly until thick to create a crème Anglaise

Mix 250g of the pumpkin purée with 200g of the Anglaise and the brown sugar. Pour into a small siphon and charge with 1 N2O canister

To make the pastry, place all of the dry ingredients in a food processor and blitz. Add the butter and carry on blitzing until fine breadcrumbs appear. Once at this stage, very quickly add the eggs to bring together. Remove from the food processor and rest for 1 hour in the fridge

Preheat a deep-fryer to 190°C

For the caramelised pecans, place the pecans in a small saucepan and cover with stock syrup. Simmer until they are soft then drain and leave to cool. Deep-fry the pecans for 2 minutes then drain and leave to cool

For the confit squash, peel the squash and cut the neck into 1cm rounds. Cut each round out with a 7.5cm cutter. Bring the stock syrup to the boil in a pan with the cardamom, bay leaf and star anise. Leave to cool

Strain the syrup and place the squash rounds and syrup in a vacuum bag. Seal in a chamber sealer and cook in a steamer for 15–20 minutes until softened but still with a little bite

For the parfait, place the maple syrup in a pan and heat to ‘soft ball’ temperature (121°C). At the same time, whisk the egg yolks until thick. Add the boiling maple syrup to the yolks and whisk until cool and stiff

Whip the cream to soft peaks and fold into the maple syrup and egg mixture. Pipe into 8cm diameter rings to 3cm height and place in the freezer until frozen solid

Roll out the pastry to a 3mm thickness then use it to line the 8cm fluted tart tins. Bake for 8–10 minutes until crisp, then leave to cool

To serve, remove the parfait from the rings and place one in each tart case. Drain the confit squash and place a piece on top of the parfait. Pipe over the mousse and finish with a caramelised pecan