The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make 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.
Ahem. I have a confession to make this month. I somehow didn’t read the recipe properly because I was so excited to see we were making a crostata, I kinda sorta forgot about the whole “pasta frolla” part. Ahem. Pasta frolla is a short crust pastry where egg yolks, not iced water, are used to bind the pastry. Right well, that will have to be for another time because I made a regular shortcrust pastry, using a Dorie Greenspan recipe with breakfast pastries in mind – the more rustic version of crostata. It is usually prepared by folding the edges of the dough over the top of a preserves or marmalade filling, which gives it a more “rough” look. If you search Google Images for crostata, you will see two types – lovely uniform round ones filled with preserves and topped with pretty strips of pastry. And more rustic ones like, ahem, mine.
Since I have been consumed by baking lately (out damned pumpkin, I say! You will see what I mean in tomorrow’s post, Project Food Blog Challenge 8: Baking with pumpkin), again, I employed my Maths for Baking skills and whittled the recipe down to make two tiny pastries for last Sunday’s breakfast, inspired by some mini-crostatas I had seen whilst searching for the pastry recipe. I was dubious about them but they were perfect – just like something you would get in a bakery. I filled them with apples and cranberries since that is what we had on hand and the flavours were spot on.
featuring Dorie Greenspan’s Good for Almost Anything Pie Dough (from Beautiful Baking for the Holidays, Simplified) for 8 mini crostatas (adapted from Joy the Baker’s apricot crostatas)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 sticks (10 tablespoons) very cold (frozen is fine) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-size pieces
2 1/2 tablespoons very cold (frozen is even better) vegetable shortening, cut into 2 pieces
About 1/4 cup ice water
4 apples, peeled and cored
8 tablespoons dried cranberries
(for egg wash) 2 eggs
(to coat crostatas) about 1/4 cup sugar (I used raw sugar because I like the look of the big crystals)
Method
Put the flour, sugar and salt into a food processor fitted with a metal blade; pulse just to combine the ingredients.
Drop in the butter and shortening and pulse only until the butter and shortening are cut into the flour. Don’t overdo the mixing — what you’re aiming for is to have some pieces the size of fat green peas and others the size of barley.
Pulsing the machine on and off, gradually add about 3 tablespoons of the water — add a little water and pulse once, add some more water, pulse again and keep going that way. Then use a few long pulses to get the water into the flour. If, after a dozen or so pulses, the dough doesn’t look evenly moistened of form soft curds, pulse in as much of the remaining water as necessary, or even a few drops more, to get a dough that will stick together when pinched. Big pieces of butter are fine. Scrape the dough out of the work bowl and onto a work surface.
Shape the dough into a disk and wrap it. Refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour (up to overnight) before rolling. (If your ingredients were very cold and you worked quickly, though, you might be able to roll the dough immediately: the dough should be as cold as if it had just come out of the fridge.)
To roll out the dough:
You can roll the dough out on a floured surface or between sheets of wax paper. If you’re working on a counter, turn the dough over frequently and keep the counter floured. If you are rolling between paper, make sure to turn the dough over often and to lift the paper, plastic or cover frequently so that it doesn’t roll into the dough and form creases.
To make the crostatas:
Once the dough is chilled, remove from the fridge, cut into eight even pieces. Roll each piece out into a circle, about 15cm in diameter. Place 4-6 apple wedges and 1tbsp cranberries in centre of the dough circles and fold the dough around the fruit, ‘gluing’ together with egg wash. Once crostatas are complete, place in the fridge to chill on waxed paper for between 20 minutes and one hour before baking.
Preheat oven to 400F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Spread crostatas out on baking sheets and brush with egg wash. Sprinkle with sugar, inside and outside the crostata. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the dough has puffed and is golden brown. Allow to cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheet. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Even though I didn’t make the pasta frolla, I am still pretty happy with this challenge. Pastry and I are not typically friends so the fact that this came out was reason enough for a happy dance in my kitchen! Must be the Dorie pastry recipe – hers never seem to let me down!
Yes, I am thrilled to announce I have made it to Round 8 of Project Food Blog. I am one of 24 people left from an original 600 contestants. Thank you all for reading and voting (and watching my video!) – my next post (getting creative with baked goods featuring pumpkin) will be up on Sunday.
I love the mini crostatas, and your pastry looks so golden and crisp!
Yes the pastry turned out beautifully!
They look like a perfect breakfast treat!
I’ll get my post up later.
It is the perfect weekend breakfast.
I just love your mini crostata and the pastry recipe looks so simple and very similar to the challenge recipe anyway. Lovely work on this challenge. Your crostate look perfect well done. Cheers from Audax in Sydney Australia.
Cheers right back at you! I am glad I am not kicked out of DB!
I have to try Dorie’s recipe. These look gorgeous Mardi:) Beautiful job! I like the idea of mini crostatas.
Yes you simply must try Dorie’s recipe!
Beautiful crostata!!! Love the sprinkle of raw sugar…nice!
These look killer! Thanks for the detailed instructions. I’ll be looking for your pasta frolla creation!
It might be into the new year before I attempt that!
Holy cow! These look amazing. Love that you made your crostata into minis and then sprinkled them with sugar. The are picture perfect and I’m sure Dorie would be proud!
Well Dorie’s recipes are really failproof – I mean if I can make pastry and have it turn out…
Gorgeous Mardi!! I love your take on the challenge this month, the small individual crostatas are lovely! Great pics too!!
This is beautiful! I think this looks more lovely than the uniform ones that the recipe wanted of us, but then again I like rustic 🙂
Thanks Rochelle 🙂
These look amazing! I wish I had one to go with my coffee right now. I actually prefer the rustic look to the tart shelled ones.
Funny, seems a lot of people do!
My one – JUST ONE! – was a wonderful breakfast treat. And I prefer rustic, me.
I’ll make them again!
Gorgeous mini crostate! I made the uniform version, but I think I prefer the more rustic, folded-in look. It’s more appetising and charming. Perfect, pretty comfort food. Yours look wonderful with the apples and cranberries and sugared tops. 🙂
Yes somehow the rustic version just reminds me of breakfast in Europe…
I love the lead photo. I tend to think that people are either cooks or bakers, seems to be a mentality thing but you are starting to challenge that opinion.
Thanks, I have always thought that too but I have to admit my perfectionist tendencies are drawn to baking…
It turned out perfectly and so inviting!
beautiful crostata looks delicious
A perfect breakfast teat. But not reading and doing the pasta frolla lol. Too much on your plate I see, do make it when you get a chance, it is awesome.
Evelyne, I think even had I read that that was the requirement (I had understood the crostata was), I would have still made the same thing. Pretty as they are, tarts like that are not really my favourite type of dessert. Perhaps I will make one to take to a party or whatever but not for eating at home.
Your little crostatas are too cute! I also have an issue with following directions =) and made mine without the eggs, and mostly without the sugar, but that’s just personal preference.
I really liked the recipe I used for the pastry because it wasn’t too sweet either!
Mardi,
Fantastic crostata. It’s tea time for me and that would go swimmingly with it. So delicious looking, well done!
Fabulous crostatas, I love the rustic ones with lots of sugar – a yummy treat for sure 🙂
It looks like perfect pastry to me! you are becoming the real baker now. CAn’t wait to see your pumpkin entry.
Well let’s not get too excited. But yes, baking and I are much more friendly than even a year ago!
Your crostatas turned out perfect and delicious looking! I love the combination of apples and dried cranberries so I would be all over those crostatas. They look sooo good! I’m going to have to try out Dorie’s recipe, it sounds delicious!
I can’t wait for your PFB post! I have been waiting and waiting for it! 🙂 I’m so excited to see what you came up with!
Yes, like all of Dorie’s recipes to date, this pastry did not fail me!
I think your rustic crostata’s look cute! I also made a smaller version of cranberry and apple and the flavors were great together. Nice job on the challenge!
Gorgeous! Apples and cranberries are wonderful together!!
Yes, not only are they pretty but the sweet apples counter the tart cranberries perfectly!
These look so professional-just like something from an artisan bakery. You can totally tell why you’ve made it so far into the bloggers challenge. Congratulations! It’s all getting terribly exciting now!
I don’t care that you didn’t read the instructions properly, these look positively divine, and I’m impressed that you even made your own pastry at all, which is something I would definitely think twice about. In fact, now that I think about it is probably the reason why I have so far never tried making crostata – but you’ve certainly now inspired me to try.
Sue 🙂
Yes pastry and I are slowly becoming acquainted…
Regardless of the pastry you chose to use, they look absolutely delicious!
Love your mini Crostatas. The sprinkled sugar was a nice touch. Delicious breakfast that was!
Love your crostata Mardi. Great flavour combination. My Mom showed me how to make Pasta Frolla a little bit ago. My Mom is from the Abruzzo region in Italy and the pasta frolla she grew up making uses oil instead of the usual butter. I’ve grown up eating it this way but would like to try the version with butter at some point. I found it was quite easy to work with. We spent the afternoon making Fiadone Dolce, one of my favourites Italian treats. Have you ever tried it? I didn’t realize it could be used for crostata, I will have to try it for sure. Also looking forward to trying Dorie’s recipe too. Thanks for sharing!
Yes I do need to make the pasta frolla at some point – it intrigues me!
Even if you read the instructions wrong, these look amazing! Nice work this month 🙂
I’m wishing I had made the same mistake you did. I would have loved this more than the DB recipe, I think. I think my pasta frolla was right, but I much prefer a traditional pie dough.
Yes it seems a lot of people liked the rustic kind after all!