Sfogliatelle

Well, while these were in the oven I got  bit carried away with my book, so they're a bit browner than I'd have liked. But they're pretty yummy anyway.

I had sfogliatelle for the first time in Adelaide a couple of weeks ago. They are truly delicious; not too sweet. I told myself I'd try making them ASAP, looked up recipes on the net, and decided to use this one.

Firstly the pastry. It's a bit of a cross between filo and flaky pastry. You need flour, sugar, butter, lard and water.

You rub the butter into the flour and sugar until it's like breadcrumbs, or use the food processor:

Then you mix it to a "soft dough" with water …

… knead it into a ball …

… then wrap it up and put it in the fridge for a couple of hours.

During that time you make the filling.

Start with milk …

… and semolina, …

… cooked as if making a semolina pudding …

… until very thick:

You then mix in some ricotta,…

…  which loosens the mixture considerably; …

 … some  candied orange peel, …

… finely chopped; …

… an egg; some sugar; and some cinnamon …

… and mix it thoroughly:

After the pastry has been in the fridge for a couple of hours, you take it out, cut it in half, and working with one half at a time …

… start rolling …

… and rolling, until it is almost as thin as filo:

This is where the lard comes in. Melt it (I used the microwave) and paint it on the pastry. The recipe said to do it in thirds, but I think it'd be fine to paint it all at once.

Then you start rolling. You need to roll quite tightly …

… painting on more lard as required …

… until the whole thing is one tight roll.

Then repeat with the other half of the dough. I think here the rolls should be rested in the fridge for another hour or so. The recipe didn't say to do so, so I didn't and it was a bit tacky to work with. However, I only made six sfogliatelle, the remainder of the pastry and filling are in the freezer whence I shall extract them on Wednesday in preparation for baking the rest of them on Thursday night.

So, you cut the rolls into slices …

… so. These could have been rolled more tightly.

Then, as if expanding a collapsible cup, you press your thumb into the middle of the spirals of pastry and form them into little pastry cones. The layers of pastry want to end up like scales on the side of the cones.

You put a couple of spoonfuls of filling into each, the recipe says tablespoons, but that has to be wrong - teaspoons was just right, …

… seal the open ends, shape them into seashell-like things and put them on an oven tray:

I also cooked the offcuts from the ends of the rolls:

So here they are, as I said, a little browner than I'd have liked, …

… but pretty good anyway:

When I make the big batch on Thursday I'll set my alarm so as to not get so carried away in my book.

I won't put the recipe in here, I made it pretty much exactly as instructed here.