As you may already know, I’m currently taking Swedish courses: 3 hours a day, 5 days a week. Needless to say that I have a lot to do because Swedish language is not a piece of cake ;)! Even if learning is sometimes difficult, this is the opportunity to meet great people from all over the world. Between Argentineans, Polish, Japanese, Romanians, Iraqis, Italians and even more, there’s a nice bevy of culture!
Anyway, it’s just to tell the way I met Monica, my favourite Italian girl! We have some things in common and notably cooking things. Last week, we used our knowledge to prepare one of Monica’s favourite desserts: a Crostata! Just like me a few days ago, you probably don’t know this typical Italian dessert. Here is a great mistake that I’m going to correct right now ;).
In a few words we could compare the Crostata to a jam tart. But its pastry has got a lot of vanilla flavour thanks to a magical powder which comes directly from Italy: Vanillina (to pronounce with the accent please ;) The texture is a bit like a rich shortcrust pastry which is really crumbly when you eat it, so good. I won’t make your mouth more watery, here is the recipe!
For a 26 cm diameter tart:
- 250g flour
- 125g room temperature butter
- 100g sugar
- 2 yolks
- 1 Vanillina packet
- 2 big tbs of apricot jam
Put the flour on your worktop and make a well in the centre.
Put the yolks, the sugar, the Vanillina in the well and add the soft butter on top of it.
Now, you have to treat the dough “as if you had something against it” ;). So strongly knead everything with your hands, until being able to make a ball (about 10 minutes I would say in our case). The dough was still a bit crumbly after this step but we eventually managed to make the tart :D
Put the dough aside for 30 minutes in the fridge, wrapped in some cling-film.
After that, spread some butter into the pie tin. Take ¾ of the dough and spread it out in the tin by pressing with your fingers. Make an edge of about 2cm. You can remove the extra dough if you want to have a straight line.
Mix the jam in a bowl to “unjellify” it and pour it on the dough (about 1cm high).
Then, use the ¼ of dough left to make some strips that you will put on the jam. If possible, roll some cordons. Unfortunately our was too crumbly so we just made small strips ;)
COOKING
Bake for about 25 minutes at 180°C. You must keep an eye on it! It’s better to get the dough undercooked than too cooked!
Let cool down on a wire rack.
SERVING SUGGESTIONS
Eat it at room temperature and whenever you want during the day :)
So leave some time for it to cool down. It’s also tastier the day after so don’t hesitate to prepare it one day before.
TIPS AND TRICKS
Crostata must be kept at room temperature. But I can tell that you won’t be able to keep it a long time :p Our French friends who were visiting this weekend also liked it a lot :)
Instead of making strips on top of the Crostata, it’s also common to put some shapes on it (lozenge for example), so let’s be creative ;)
I just have to find some Vanillina! And I think that I have a lead here in Sweden, so you should be able to find it in France too.
To be made and made again with different flavours. Next time will be raspberry for me; what about you? ;)
A huge thanks to Monica for this great time and for the great pictures she took :) And thanks to her friend for the recipe!
Rose.
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