These pastries are a bit time-consuming but the taste and the results were fabulous.
A flaky dough that looks like clam shells. Takes a little more practice, while making these to get them right!
I have to say out of the 30 pastries only one was worthy enough for a photo so they won't all look perfect but they sure are delicious!
The dough is my Grandma's recipe and the filling is what I adapted to my own taste, you can add what your Region of Italy prefers in taste.
Scroll down for this recipe there is also a printable recipe at the bottom for your convenience.
Delicious Made From Scratch Italian Pastry
These traditional sfogliatelle recipe has the characteristic many-layered seashell shape and rich semolina and ricotta filling you'd expect of this classic Neapolitan pastry.
A sfogliatelle, sometimes called a lobster tail in English is popular in the United States and filled with cream, both styles are shell-shaped filled Italian pastry native to Campania.
Sfogliatella means "small, leafy-looking layers since the pastry's texture resembles stacked crispy leaves.
In English, it means lobster tail because of its shape.
American lobster tails are filled with a sweet cream much more like a frosting or whipped cream, not custard, not to be confused with this Italian-made pastry.
Campania Region
If you have visited the Campania region, then you must have encountered this curious-looking puff pastry called sfogliatelle.
And yep, that’s not a typo, no matter how the spellcheck may tell you otherwise.
That is really how it’s spelled. As for how you pronounce it, you read it as sfol-ya-tel-le.
It’s a puff pastry that has about the same texture as a croissant.
But its shape is that of a shell or a lobster tail. And it can hold all kinds of yummy filling, such as a simple whipped cream or a special custard mixture with candied peels.
Others even have almond paste as a filling instead of creamy custard you will have to adapt to your own family Regions and history of how you enjoy this pastry filling.
Sfogliatella is a symbol of the city of Naples.
The story goes that a nun in a convent somewhere on the Amalfi coast combined some leftover semolina with lemon liqueur, sugar, and dried fruit.
Then she took some dough and kneaded them into two sheets, and put the semolina mixture in the center, serving as filling.
And this sweet pastry is called Santarosa, which is a sweet treat still very much popular in Italy today.
It was named after the convent of Santa Rosa, where the first nuns who created it lived.
Later in the 19th century, the pastry made its way to the city of Naples.
There, a pastry shop owner named Pasquale Pintauro changed its shape into the triangular lobster tail that it is today.
Sfogliatelle Pin for later
Makes 16 large or 32 small pastries a printable copy is below this recipe
I adapted parts of the recipes to my taste, I made the dough using Grandma's dough recipe (a Roman Style recipe):
Dough
8 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
2 cups butter, the original recipe calls for suet or lard
1 3/4 cups cold water, more if needed
2 tablespoons fine salt
1/2 cup honey
Dough Instructions:
Melt the honey with water.
Put the flour into a food processor and add the shortening, and 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. Wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.
Filling:
3 cups whole milk
Pinch of salt
6 oz or 3/4 cup semolina flour
6 oz whole milk ricotta, drained very well
12 oz (about 1 1/2 cups superfine sugar
1 drop Cinnamon oil
1 tablespoon Orange Flower Water or 1 tablespoon zest
2 tablespoons Candied Orange Peel cut into small pieces ( I opted not to use peel or citron)
2 tablespoons Candied Diced Citron
3 extra large eggs
Directions:
In a heavy-duty, saucepan brings the milk to a boil being careful not to scorch it. Add the salt and pour all the semolina at once in into the water while stirring it rapidly with a wooden spoon.
Cook the semolina for 10 minutes then remove it to cool for an hour.
Using a wooden spoon mix the ricotta, sugar, oil of cinnamon, and orange flower water, if using add candied orange peel, candied citron, and eggs all together in a glass bowl. When the semolina is cool add it to the ricotta cheese mixture and mix smooth.
Preheat your oven to 375
Dough:
Take out your dough and cut it into 4 equal size pieces.
Using (a pasta machine if you have one) make each piece of dough into a very thin long layer 6 inches wide and 18 inches long as thin as you can get it. Or roll by hand as I did getting it as thin as possible.
Place a sheet of the thin dough on top of a parchment paper tray on a large hard surface like a huge cutting board or pasta board. Brush the sheeted dough with the melted butter or lard coating it completely.
Place another piece of sheeted dough on top of the one you just brushed with butter and repeat. Do this until all the dough is layered and sheeted.
Trim the pastry now so it is a long rectangle. Starting from the small 6-inch end tightly roll the stack of pastry into a tight single roll its edges should look like a rolled-up like newspaper roll. It is important to refrigerate the pastry now wrapped in a cotton dishtowel (to absorb moisture ) for at least 4 hours.
Take out your chilled pastry and slice a 1/2 inch slice this will look like ribbon. Now lift up the circle and place it in the palm of your hand. Using your finger press into the center and begin pushing the layers out as if you were creating a hollow" A" frame house, and fanning until you have a layered cone effect.
After you make this pastry cup hold the shell in the center of your hand, put a spoon full of filling inside the center, sealing the edges, but don’t pinch them together. Carefully lay them down on your parchment-lined baking sheet. Brush each one with an egg wash or melted butter, suet or lard whatever you choose to use. Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes until light and golden in color.
Egg Wash
1 egg, beaten with the water
1 tablespoon water
Sprinkle them with powdered sugar when they are hot out of the oven, and serve them warm if possible.
If you would like to Print this here is a printable version:
Italian pastry, cream-filled dessert, custard, stogliatelle
dessert, Italian pastry, baked pastry, filled pastry,
Italian
Yield: 20
SFOGLIATELLE
prep time: 40 min cook time: 20 min total time: 60 mins
These are delicious Italian pastries, it takes time and practice but they taste marvelous homemade!
ingredients:
- Makes 16 large or 32 small pastries
- I adapted parts of the recipes to my taste, and used my Grandma's dough recipe (a Roman Style recipe):
- Dough
- 8 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
- 2 cups butter, the original recipe calls for suet or lard
- 1 3/4 cups cold water, more if needed
- 2 tablespoons fine salt
- 1/2 cup honey
- Dough Instructions:
- Melt the honey with water.
- Put the flour into a food processor and add the shortening, and 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. Wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.
- Filling:
- 3 cups whole milk
- Pinch of salt
- 6 oz or 3/4 cup semolina flour
- 6 oz whole milk ricotta, drained very well
- 12 oz (about 1 1/2 cups superfine sugar
- 1 drop Cinnamon oil
- 1 tablespoon Orange Flower Water or 1 tablespoon zest
- 2 tablespoons Candied Orange Peel cut into small pieces ( I opted not to use peel or citron)
- 2 tablespoons Candied Diced Citron
- 3 extra large eggs
instructions:
- Directions:
- In a heavy-duty, saucepan brings the milk to a boil being careful not to scorch it. Add the salt and pour all the semolina at once into the water while stirring it rapidly with a wooden spoon.
- Cook the semolina for 10 minutes then remove it to cool for an hour.
- Using a wooden spoon mix the ricotta, sugar, oil of cinnamon, and orange flower water, if using add candied orange peel, candied citron, and eggs all together in a glass bowl. When the semolina is cool add it to the ricotta cheese mixture and mix smooth.
- Preheat your oven to 375
- Dough:
- Take out your dough and cut it into 4 equal size pieces.
- Using (a pasta machine if you have one) make each piece of dough into a very thin long layer 6 inches wide and 18 inches long as thin as you can get it. Or roll by hand as I did getting it as thin as possible.
- Place a sheet of the thin dough on top of a parchment paper tray on a large hard surface like a huge cutting board or pasta board. Brush the sheeted dough with the melted butter or lard coating it completely.
- Place another piece of sheeted dough on top of the one you just brushed with butter and repeat. Do this until all the dough is layered and sheeted.
- Trim the pastry now so it is a long rectangle. Starting from the small 6-inch end tightly roll the stack of pastry into a tight single roll its edges should look like a rolled-up like newspaper roll. It is important to refrigerate the pastry now wrapped in a cotton dishtowel (to absorb moisture ) for at least 4 hours.
- Take out your chilled pastry and slice a 1/2 inch slice this will look like ribbon. Now lift up the circle and place it in the palm of your hand. Using your finger press into the center and begin pushing the layers out as if you were creating a hollow" A" frame house, and fanning until you have a layered cone effect.
- After you make this pastry cup hold the shell in the center of your hand, put a spoon full of filling inside the center, sealing the edges, but don’t pinch them together. Carefully lay them down on your parchment-lined baking sheet. Brush each one with an egg wash or melted butter, suet, or lard whatever you choose to use. Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes until light and golden in color.
- Egg Wash
- 1 egg, beaten with the water
- 1 tablespoon water
- Sprinkle them with powdered sugar when they are hot out of the oven, and serve them warm if possible.
calories
320
320
fat (grams)
19
19
sat. fat (grams)
11
11
carbs (grams)
19
19
net carbs
20
20
protein (grams)
4
4
sugar (grams)
24
24
Created using The Recipes Generator
Sfogliatelle Pin for later
Some Italian Cannoli Recipes
Italian Cannoli Cupcakes
Cannoli Cake
Cannoli Pie
Cannoli Tarts