Pasta Frolla {Flavia's Fundamentals}
I had planned on publishing this post much sooner, but as you can see from the picture below, the Flavia's Flavors household has a new family member. Her name is Sienna and she's an almost 11 week-old bundle of energetic Irish Setter cuteness. Peter and I left for the five-hour car trip to Dallas last Friday and brought her home on Saturday. We couldn't be happier to have a dog back in the house, and we're convinced our Dutch left some seriously positive karma in our house because Sienna took to us immediately and is adjusting incredibly well. She's full of the expected puppy mischeif, but Peter and I immediately established a routine for her and she's learning quickly. It's a good thing I have some posts already lined up and in my blogging queue because I've had my hands full this week, and cooking and baking have been near impossible! But it's worth the temporary sacrifice while we all get to know each other.
Now then, let me tell you about pasta frolla so you can make a real Italian crostata! Pasta frolla is a basic Italian pastry dough used mainly for sweet dessert tarts. Unlike pate brisee where the butter is incorporated into the flour cold, pasta frolla is made using room temperature butter, which is first incorporated with sugar and then moistened with eggs before the flour is added. What results is more like a shortbread cookie type of dough with a delightfully light texture and subtly sweet flavor. I used the recipe and process found in Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook, which I found very easy and identical in flavor the the pasta frolla my Nonna Liliana used to make. The only change I made to the recipe was subsituting lemon zest for the orange zest since my Nonna always used lemon zest when making pasta frolla. I'm sure organge zest tastes wonderful, but I'm not big on changing recipes when I like them a certain way.
Ready to learn how to make pasta frolla? Here we go! The recipe will be listed at the end of this post.
The ingredient line-up: all-purpose flour, granulated sugar, 2 eggs, baking powder, salt, 1 stick of unsalted butter (at room temperature) and 1 lemon
Begin by whisking together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar together over medium speed until light and fluffy; about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides as necessary. Add in the lemon or orange zest and mix to incorporate.
Beat in 1 whole egg and 1 egg yolk and mix to combine.
Make sure all the egg is evenly incorporated.
Reduce the mixer speed to low and gradually add in the flour mixture. Scrape down the sides as necessary.
Once the flour is completely incorporated, the dough will look like this. It will not be very sticky.
Form the dough into a disk and divide the dough into 2 pieces--one piece slightly larger than the other.
Form each portion of dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour or overnight. If refrigerating the dough overnight, let it stand at room temperature for 20-30 minutes before rolling it out.
When you are ready to roll out the dough, flour the board and the dough well to prevent sticking.
Slowly roll the dough starting from the center of the disk and rolling outwards. Turn the dough one quarter of a turn and keep rolling in this way until the dough round is slightly larger than the circumference of the tart pan.
Carefully, roll half of the dough onto the rolling pin.
Transfer the dough to the tart pan. The tart pan does not need to be greased. There is enough butter in the dough to keep it from sticking to the pan.
With your fingertips, press the dough snugly into the tart pan. Don't worry if it cracks--you can use your fingertips to gently press the crack together.
Once the dough has been fitted into the tart pan, roll the rolling pin gently over the tart pan to cut off the excess dough.
Next, roll out the second disk of dough and place it in the refrigerator to chill. On a well-floured board, trim the dough round with a textured cutter or small paring knife.
Cut the dough round into strips and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Chill for about 10 minutes. It will be easier to handle when you go to transfer them onto the crostata. Don't worry if some of the strips break--it doesn't have to be perfect. Pasta frolla can be hard to work with when it starts to warm up.
Fill your tart shell with your favorite jam and lay the strips on top of the jam in a criss-cross or lattice pattern. Press the ends of each strip gently against the sides of the tart pan. You can brush the strips with an egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 Tablespoon cold water), but it is not necessary--I forgot to do this, and my crostata still browned nicely.
Voila! Now you know how to make an Italian crostata!
Pasta Frolla
Adapted from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
Zest of 1 lemon or orange
1 large whole egg
1 large egg yolkIn a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar together over medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Beat in the lemon or orange zest. Add the egg and egg yolk an beat until well incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the flour mixture, mixing well to combine. Make sure not to over-mix.
Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured board and form it into a disk. Divide the disk into 2 pieces, making one piece slightly larger than the other. Form each piece of dough into a disk and wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 1 hour or overnight.
When ready to roll out the dough, let it stand at room temperature until pliable enough to roll, but not too soft. Follow the procedures illustrated above for rolling out the dough and assembling the crostata.
Bake the crostata in a preheated 350-degree oven for 30-40 minutes, or until the crust in a golden brown.
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I just realized that when I make crostata, I am actually making pasta brisee and not frolla, because I incorporate cold butter...