This month's Daring Bakers Challenge was hosted by Simona from Briciole. Simona challenged us to make crostata (tart), an Italian dessert. The base of a crostata is pasta frolla (or pastafrolla), sweet short crust pastry (or sweet tart dough) made of flour, sugar, butter and eggs. I have made a White-Choclate Rapsberry Crostata. The recipes have been inspired by those in the book La scienza in cucina e l’arte di mangiare bene by Pellegrino Artusi (1820-1911). I have made Pasta Frolla using version 2 that Simona gave.
For the Pasta Frolla
Ingredients
AP Flour - 1/2 Cup
Wholemeal Flour - 1/2 Cup
Rice Flour - 1/4 Cup
Almond Meal - 1/4 Cup
Superfine Sugar - 1/3 Cup
Salt a pinch
Lemon Zest - 1 tsp
Vanilla Extract - 1/2 tsp
Butter - 85 gms cut into small cubes
Egg -1
Method:
Put sugar, flour, and salt in the bowl of the food processor and pulse a few times to mix. Add butter and pulse a few times until the mixture has the consistency of coarse meal. Empty food processor's bowl onto your work surface.Make a well in the center of the mounded flour and butter mixture and pour the beaten egg and vanilla extract into it. Use a fork to incorporate the liquid into the solid ingredients then use your fingertips. Knead lightly just until the dough comes together into a ball. Shape the dough into a flat disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Place the dough in the refrigerator and chill for at least two hours. Heat the oven to 190ºC].Take the pasta frolla out of the fridge, unwrap it. To help roll the crostata dough, keep the dough on top of the plastic wrap that you had it wrapped in. This can help rolling the dough and can also help when transferring the dough to your pan. You can also use parchment paper for this. However, you can also roll the dough directly on a work surface if you prefer.Lightly dust the top of the dough and your work surface (if you’re rolling directly on a work surface) with flour. Keep some flour handy to dust the dough as you go along. If the dough is very firm, start by pressing the dough with the rolling pin from the middle to each end, moving the rolling pin by a pin's width each time; turn the dough 180 degrees and repeat; when it softens, start rolling. Roll the dough into a circle about 1/8th inch (3 mm) thick.If you used the plastic wrap or parchment paper as rolling surface, flip dough over the pan, centering it, and delicately press it all around so the corners are well covered. Peel away the plastic wrap.Trim the excess dough hanging over the edges of the pan. Press the remaining dough around the border into the sides of the pan making sure the border is an even thickness all the way around. Prick the bottom of the dough with a fork in several places. Blind bake the pastry for about 15 minutes.
Blind-baking is a process often used in baking. To blind-bake a tart shell, you line the unbaked tart (once you’ve placed it in the tart pan) with parchment paper or aluminum foil. You then fill the tart with pie weights. If you don’t have pie weights, you can use dried beans. You pour these on top of the parchment paper or aluminum foil to weigh the paper down. You then bake the tart for a period of time to ensure that it is at least partially cooked. The weights help to ensure that the tart base does not bubble up during baking and that it bakes evenly. The blind-baked tart is then cooled and filled according to the recipe instructions.
For the White Chocolate-Raspberry Filling (Adapted from Cannelle Et Vanille)
Ingredients
White Chocolate - 200 gms
Heavy Cream - 250ml
Whole Milk - 200ml
Egg Yolks - 4
Vanilla Bean Paste - 1/4 tsp
Sugar - 20 gms
Fresh Raspberries - 200gms
Method: Bring milk and cream to a boil with vanilla bean paste and pour over chocolate and whisk until smooth. Whisk the yolks with sugar . Temper the hot chocolate with the eggs. Strain the custard. Place the raspberries on the baked and cooled pastry. Pour the custard into the shell and bake for about 30-45 min. Refrigerate until complete cooled.
