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Add a photoA crispy pastry consisting of hungreds of layers filled sweetened ricotta and semolina.
This recipe was taken from an antique cook book given to me by Chef Antonio Cannavacciuolo who runs a 2 star Michelin restaurant at the Villa Crespi in Piedmonte, Italy.
Ingredients
- Dough
- 8 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
- 2 cups suet or lard
- 1 3/4 cups cold water, more if needed
- 2 tablespoons fine salt
- 1/2 cup honey
- Filling
- 2 cups semolina
- 1 3/4 cups whole milk ricotta
- 2 cups confectionary sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 3/4 cup candied fruit, chopped
- 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 pinches cinnamon
- 7 oz. distilled water, as needed
- Salt to taste
- Egg Wash
- 1 egg, beaten with the water
- 2 tablespoons water, as needed
- Other things needed
- Pasta machine
Directions
- Dough
- Melt the honey with water.
- Put the flour into a food processor and add the suet, salt and mix until it crumbles. Add the honey/water mixture a little at a time until the dough forms into a ball. Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic.
- If making the dough by hand, put the flour in a large bowl or on a wooden board. Make a well in the middle and add the suet, salt, honey and water. Mix with your hands until you form a ball. Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic.
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it.
- Assembly
- Roll out thin strips of the dough in the pasta machine. Make several equal strips in length of at least 40â. The strip should be the thickness of 1/16â or less.
- With care, lightly but lavishly brush the suet onto each strip. In doing this, you must be very careful that the strips are not stretched or torn. Never use flour.
- Place 3 of the greased strips on top of each other. Tightly roll up the strips toward you. You will find that the fat will begin to melt. Continue with this process until you have rolled up all the strips.
- You will then have a coil of approximately 12â in length and 3â in diameter; you will find that the suet has melted somewhat. Cover the cylinder with plastic wrap. Put it in the refrigerator for 24 hours.
- If using a pasta machine your strips are not going to be the same size, they will be the width of the pasta machine. This is not a problem; just follow the recipe directions in the same way.
- Assembly
- The following day proceed with filling and baking them. Remove the cylinder from the refrigerator. Cut the cylinders into slices the thickness of 1â.
- You must transform the slice into sfogliatelle flakes. On the cut side, using your fingers, gently push in the folds from the center inwards. Making the inverse movement on the outside, from the edge towards the larger end. Gently spread the larger end outwards, so that it looks like a clamshell with grooves.
- Continue with the same treatment for the other slices. Then, maneuvering delicately and flattening them to take the shape again working in the shape of a clamshell with a point on top and wide at the base creating what looks like a shell; finally the sfogliatelle is ready to be filled.
- Another possibility is to take each 1â slice and sprinkle a little flour on a board and a little on the slice. With a rolling pin, roll from the center out to the right and the left. Again place the rolling pin in the middle of the oval and roll down forming an oval shape. Pick up the oval and fill with the filling in the middle. Seal the wide part of the oval and place on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.
- This process does not create the typical shell shape but is acceptable.
- Filling
- Place all the ingredients in a bowl except for the water. Beat by hand until you have blended all the ingredients. Begin to add a little water at a time beating it in until the filling is just a little fluid.
- This is a thick filling and you just want to add enough water to make it smooth.
- Assembly
- Hold the shell in the hollow of your hand, put a spoon full of filling inside the center; seal the edges, but donât pinch them together.
- Carefully lay them down on your cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush each one with an egg wash or melted suet or lard whatever you choose to use.
- BAKE
- Prepare all the sfogliatelle. Bake in a 400º F oven for 15 minutes. Brush with the lard and reduce the heat to 350º F and cook for another 15 minutes. Brush with an egg wash and cook for another 5-10 minutes at 250º F. When they are a beautifully golden in color, remove them from the oven.
- Sprinkle them with a veil of powdered sugar when they are hot out of the oven, and serve them warm if possible.
- NOTE: The result is a satisfactory pastry, but it doesnât not compare to the bakery. A special machine is used in bakeries to form the pastry and this canât be effectively reproduced at home even when using a pasta machine.
- NOTE: Sfogliatelle do not stay well. It is best to make the dough and rolls the day before and the next day bake and serve them.
- NOTE: The preparation time does not include passive time.
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Nutrition Facts
| Amount Per Serving | %DV |
|---|---|
| Serving Size 107g | |
| Recipe makes 32 servings | |
| Calories 330 | |
| Calories from Fat 149 | 45% |
| Total Fat 16.56g | 21% |
| Saturated Fat 9.07g | 36% |
| Trans Fat 0.0g | |
| Cholesterol 36mg | 12% |
| Sodium 459mg | 19% |
| Potassium 86mg | 2% |
| Total Carbs 37.39g | 10% |
| Dietary Fiber 1.4g | 5% |
| Sugars 5.09g | 3% |
| Protein 6.95g | 11% |
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Reviews
August 6, 2010
I have yet to try these the pastry looks so hard to duplicate and I love them yours are fabulous going to bookmark and favorite in hopes someday I get brave enough....lovely! I should have known you make these!~ and they are perfect wish I could eat one right now :)
August 10, 2010
Patricia...congrats for succeeding at pastries which I love to buy at my favourite baker and would probably not make in my kitchen due to the complexity and patience involved.
Brava for accomplishing such a fabulous dessert. At least you can pat yourself on the back for having done it! Now, I will pass this on to my mother-in-law...she might just be as crazy as you are...well, at least once like you ;o))
Wonderful photo of your accomplishment.
Ciao for now,
Claudia
August 11, 2010
Reminds me of Sunday dinners at nonna's house!I've cooked/tasted this recipe!
July 13, 2012
Are you sure you're not my mother in disguise?
We call these Lobster Tails over here. We split them down the center and add the filling..then ruffle some whipped cream over it....looks like a broiled rock lobster tail when we are finished.
But of course its a pastry.
I've cooked/tasted this recipe!
Comments
- April 26, 2011This is the recipe Patricia... I wanted to refer back to your blog... on thanks!1 reply
August 12, 2010wow, I've wondered how to make these. what a great recipe, these look absolutely delicious.
August 11, 2010Patricia: I actually touched the photo and sighed. They look wonderful and the "Lobster Tails" (Claudia's NY name for them) are so delicious. But I, too, will continue to purchase mine at the bakery. I will print the recipe...just to have in my special cookbook. Thank you. N
cucinananette.blogspot.com- August 6, 2010Well these look fabulous, they call these lobster tails in NY. I have had the recipe a long long time and never attempted them. I am old school, have a pasta machine for 30 brand new in the box, just cant seem to teach myself these new things...wish we lived closer, I would love to watch you! these are perfect!
August 6, 2010Claudia,
I made them once and although it was fun and interesting to try, I think I'll stick to buying them. There is a video on YouTube showing how they are made by hand by a professional chef in Italy. I suggest you watch it if you make them. Filling them is about the same as in my post but they stretch out the dough which is interesting to watch. Most people don't have a surface where they can do this at home which is why I used the pasta machine and made them smaller, but you still can't get the pastry the same as by machine for this purpose. Good Luck in trying them, they are delicious even though they don't look as professional.
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