The torta pasticciotto is a great classic pastry from Lecce and is the large version of the classic pasticciotti, the quintessential dessert of Salento, ideal to accompany a coffee or tea but also for a mouth-watering breakfast.
It is a short pastry shell filled with delicious custard. The original recipe calls for the use of lard in the dough but if you cannot find it you can replace it with butter.
The result will be slightly different but still very good.
The torta pasticciotto is the large version of the most famous pasticciotto leccese, a dessert that cannot be missed in the breakfast of the people of Salento.
Follow me in the kitchen and make the pasticciotto cake with me.
SERVINGS:8
INGREDIENTS:
- 4 cups of all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup of butter
- 1 cup of granulated sugar
- 2 whole eggs plus one yolk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- a pinch of salt
- 1 tsp of baking powder
- 3 cups of custard cream (Crema Pasticcera) Recipe here: https://eatalianrecipes.com/how-to-make-italian-crema-pasticcera-custard-cream/
- sour cherries (in Italy called Amarene) to taste
DIRECTIONS:
We place the flour in a well, add the sugar, vanilla extract, a pinch of salt, baking powder, eggs, yolk, and room temperature butter.
We knead until we get a smooth, homogeneous dough.
We let our shortbread dough ball wrapped in clingfilm rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
After this time has elapsed, we roll out a little more than half of our loaf to a thickness of about 7 mm (0,27 inches), go to line a buttered hinged mold of about 24 cm (9 inches) and prick the bottom with a fork.
At this point we go to add the custard and sour cherries.
We roll out the remaining shortcrust pastry, creating a disk with enough diameter to cover the entire surface.
We trim the excess pastry at the edges.
We brush the surface with the beaten diluted egg and make a few small holes in the surface.
We bake at 350 F for about 40 minutes.
Once baked and golden brown, we let it cool completely before removing it from the mold.
