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Crostata Recipe
Italian Crostata is the Italian dessert recipe for excellence, made with pasta frolla and jam. Crostata is a genuine, simple, incredibly greedy dessert that everyone in Italy loves deeply!Italian Crostata is a sweet treat for any occasion. You can transform it into a thousand different tarts, depending on the filling: fruit tart, chocolate tart, custard tart, ricotta tart or apple tart.
Ingredients
For the Pasta Frolla:
- 250 g “00” flour 1 ⅔ cup + more for the working surface
- 100 g granulated sugar ½ cup
- 120 g butter 1 stick, unsalted and cold
- 1 egg medium size, at room temperature
- 1 egg yolk medium size, at room temperature
- ⅙ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ lemon zest
For the Filling:
- 300 g apricot jam or the jam you prefer ~1 cup
Instructions
Make the Pasta Frolla
- Place the flour on a pastry board then make a hole in the center. Add the sugar, baking powder, salt, lemon zest and eggs at room temperature.
- Add the cold butter cut into small pieces. Combine it quickly with your hands.
- Mix the ingredients quickly, for the shortest possible time, so as not to overheat the dough, until the mixture is compact and elastic. Finally, form a loaf and wrap it in cling film.
- Let it cool for AT LEAST 1 HOUR in the fridge. You can make pasta frolla even the day before.
Make the Crostata
- You have to work the pasta frolla when cold. So, take it from the fridge and cut about ⅓ of the pastry, wrap it in cling film and put it back in the fridge. This piece of pasta frolla is used to make the edge of the tart and the decorative strips.
- Roll out the remaining ⅔ of sweeet shortcrust pastry with a rolling pin until it reaches a thickness of about ½ cm (¼ inch). Use a COLD work surface, such as marble.
- Place the pasta frolla in a tart mold, lined with baking paper. Preferably with the removable bottom, so you can easily take the tart out once baked.
- Now take the pastry that is cooling in the refrigerator, take off a piece and, with the help of your hands, make a long roll of pastry as thick as a finger. Now, arrange the roll of pastry around the edge of the tart.
- With the help of the tines of a fork or with the end of its handle, press on the roll of pastry along the edge, as if to make a decoration. Then, pour the jam and, with the help of a spoon, spread it over the whole surface of the tart.
- SWith the remaining pasta frolla - the one in the fridge - make other rolls of pastry, flatten them with your hands and arrange them to form the classic decoration of Italian jam tart, a criss-cross pattern to form rhombuses or squares.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C (350°F) for about 30 minutes. When the edge of the tart is golden brown, remove the crostata from the oven and let it cool before serving.
Notes
- Doses for about 500 g (1.1 pound) of Pasta Frolla for a crostata in a tart pan of about 22 cm (9 inch) in diameter
- The heat of your hands can melt the butter too much and alter the final flavor of the pasta frolla. So BEFORE KNEADING, here 2 useful TIPS: 1) put your hands under cold-ice water then dry them well; 2) use a marble pastry board. It's really important not to heat the pasta frolla dough too much!
- It's not necessary to pierce the bottom of the tart with a fork. The weight of the jam does not allow the cake to swell during cooking.
- You can decorate your crostata in a more original or specific way, for differt occasions. For another type of decoration read the paragraph above "How to Decorate an Italian Crostata".
Nutrition
Calories: 503kcalCarbohydrates: 82gProtein: 6gFat: 18gSaturated Fat: 11gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 103mgSodium: 262mgPotassium: 114mgFiber: 2gSugar: 39gVitamin A: 687IUVitamin C: 9mgCalcium: 51mgIron: 2mg
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