Daring Bakers Challenge - November 2010 - Crostata

First of all, this is my first time participating in Daring Bakers Challenge, and I'm expecting lots of fun with future challenges as well.
This month's challenge was hosted by Simona from briciole and she chose pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.
Simona suggested two basic recipes for pasta frolla and various options for filling. You can find the full recipes with step-by-step pictures on the Daring Kitchen site.
I used the Version 1 of pasta frolla that she suggested and filled the crostata with lemon cream, that was my own choice.
I wanted to try this recipe for Lemon Cream Crostata for quite a long time, although in the end I had hard time deciding between this recipe and Chocolate and Pear Crostata. Thinking better, maybe I should have tried the other one.



The recipe's fine, but too tart. I love lemons, and I don't like overly sweet stuff, but this was a bit too much for me.  Maybe it's my lemons, maybe they were too big, maybe I should have followed my instinct and added more sugar. Anyway, the recipe has a good potential but needs to be adjusted in that sense. So if any of you decide to give this a try, keep it in mind, and adjust it to your taste.
Crostata with Lemon Cream



Crostata with Lemon cream

(version 1 of) pasta frolla
Ingredients:

100 g superfine sugar or 90g of powdered sugar
235 g unbleached all-purpose flour
a pinch of salt
115 g cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
grated zest of half a lemon (you could also use vanilla sugar)
1 large egg and 1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten in a small bowl


Lemon Cream:
35 g butter
2 TBspoons flour
2 organic lemons, zest and juice
80 g sugar
320 ml full fat milk

pasta frolla:
Whisk together sugar, flour and salt in a bowl.
Rub or cut the butter into the flour until the mixture has the consistency of coarse crumbs. You can do this in the bowl or on your work surface, using your fingertips or pastry cutter.
Make a well in the center of the mounded flour and butter mixture and pour the beaten eggs into it (reserve about a teaspoon of the egg mixture for glazing purposes later on – place in the refrigerator, covered, until ready to use).
Add the lemon zest to your flour/butter/egg mixture.
Use a fork to incorporate the liquid into the solid ingredients, and 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. You can refrigerate the dough overnight.

Lemon Cream:
Grate the zest of both lemons, squeeze the juice and filter it through a mash sieve.
Melt the butter in a medium size saucepan. Add the flour and whisk, start adding the lemon juice in a thin streak, the lemon zest, the milk and the sugar. Bring to boil and cook for about 2 more minutes stirring continuously. Set aside.

Heat the oven to 190ºC.
Take the pasta frolla out of the fridge, unwrap it and cut away 1/4 of the dough. Reserve this dough to make the lattice top of the crostata.
On a lightly floured surface or between two sheets of parchment paper, roll the dough into a circle about 3 mm thick.
If you used the parchment paper as rolling surface, flip dough over a 24-cm crostata pan, centering it, and delicately press it all around so the corners are well covered. Remove the parchment paper, trim the excess dough hanging over the edges of the pan and prick the bottom with a fork.

Pour the cream into the crostata shell.
Roll out the remaining 1/4 of the dough, cut it into stripes and create a lattice on top of the cream (while I was making the crostata shell, my daughter ate a good piece of the remaining dough and I had hardly enough to make the lattice).
Bake the crostata until golden (about 35-40 minutes). Let the crostata cool completely before cutting it.






Crostata s kremom od limuna


Prhko tijesto:
235 g mekog brašna
100 g sitnog šećera (ili 90 g šećera u prahu)
prstohvat soli
115 g hladnog maslaca
1/2 limuna (naribana korica)
1 veliko jaje
1 žumanjak

Krema od limuna
35 g maslaca
2 velike žlice brašna
2 neprskana limuna (korica i sok)
80 g šećera
320 ml punomasnog mlijeka


Za tijesto, prosijte skupa brašno i sol, pomiješajte sa šećerom i dodajte sitno naribanu koricu limuna.

Dodajte na listiće narezan hladan maslac, pa trljajte vršcima prstiju da dobijete krupnije mrvice.
Jaje i žumanjak malo razmutite vilicom, pa odvojite 1 žlicu za premazivanje kasnije (pokrijte i držite u hladnjaku do upotrebe).
Od brašna s maslacem oblikujte hrpicu s rupom u sredini. Dodajte jaja i lagano počnite miješati vilicom dodajući pomalo brašno, a onda dalje brzo rukama zamijesite glatko tijesto. Mijesite kratko i brzo, tek toliko koliko je potrebno da se svi sastojci povežu. Zamotajte tijesto u plastičnu foliju i ostavite u hladnjaku 1-2 sata, a može i preko noći.

Za kremu, otopite maslac u dubljoj posudi, dodajte brašno i miješajte pjenjačom da se ne stvore grudice.
Dodajte postepeno sok od limuna, a zatim i koricu, šećer i mlijeko neprestano miješajući.
Kad provrije kuhajte još dvije minute stalno miješajući. Neka krema odmara dok razvaljate tijesto.

Izvadite tijesto iz hladnjaka, odvojite 1/4, a ostatak razvaljajte tanko (oko 3 mm) na malo pobrašnjenoj podlozi ili između dva lista papira za pečenje (puno je jednostavnije s papirom).
Razvaljanim tijestom obložite okrugli kalup za crostate promjera 24 cm. Odrežite nožem višak tijesta koje visi preko ruba kalupa. Izbodite tijesto u kalupu vilicom
Ostatak tijesta razvaljajte i narežite na trakice.
Ulijte kremu preko tijesta i preko nje složite unakrsno pripremljene trakice.
Jajetu koje ste odvojili dodajte žlicu mlijeka pa kistom premažite rešetku.
Stavite peći u pećnicu zagrijanu na 190°C oko 35-40 minuta, odnosno dok tijesto lijepo ne porumeni.
Ostavite da se potpuno ohladi prije nego je režete, a još je bolja ako je ostavite da odstoji preko noći.


Ne znam da li je bilo do mojih limuna ili količini soka koju sam dobila iz njih, ali meni je krema bila malo kiselkasta, pa bih drugi put dodala još šećera. U svakom slučaju, nakon što je odstajala preko noći, bila je manje kisela, još sam je dodatno posula šećerom u prahu.


Tijesto je fantastično, recept je iz knjige slavnog talijanskog kuhara po imenu Pellegrino Artusi. Svakako ga isprobajte i za druge crostate po vašoj želji.