Pasticciotto (Italian Cream Filled Pastry)

Pasticciotto Leccese ticks all the boxes for what a perfect pastry should be — sweet, sumptuous, and irresistible!  An authentic Pugliese recipe you can easily make at home, so treat yourself to a serving of Italian cream filled pastry on your next break!

If there’s such a thing as ‘comfort pastry,’ that’s pasticciotto for me.

What more could you ask for? Sweet, creamy, and with a bit of crispiness from the pastry. Yum.

I discovered pasticciotti when we visited Puglia in the summer of 2016. In the southern part of that region, there’s a beautiful and charming city called Lecce — and this pastry is as ubiquitous as orecchiette (the region’s pasta). 

So, what exactly is pasticciotto?

It’s a sweet pie with an Italian pastry cream as its filling — quite similar to torta della Nonna (or Italian custard pie from Tuscany).

Pasticciotto refers to one piece of pastry, and pasticciotti is its plural form.

The locals typically enjoy pasticciotti as breakfast pastries, but I’ve also met some who would heat them after dinner and have them for dessert.  

Still as delicious as they were in the morning.

What is pasticciotti made of?

Pastry crust at the bottom, Italian cream in the middle, and another pastry crust on top — that’s how you assemble a pasticciotto.

So expect a perfect balance of crunch and soft and luscious cream in every bite. Simply delicious.

Oh! And don’t worry, it’s really easy to make a traditional torta pasticciotto at home.  

So give it a try, and I’m sure you’ll make it regularly for your friends and family soon enough! 

FOR MORE AUTHENTIC ITALIAN RECIPES FROM THE SOUTH, CHECK OUT THESE POSTS!

Ingredients

• Eggs – make sure they’re at room temperature.

• Cornstarch – in case you can’t find any cornstarch, potato flour is an excellent substitute.

• Sugar – granulated white sugar is great for making pasticciotti.

• Lemon – you would only be using the lemon zest for the cream (apologies, not included in the image above).

• Milk – regular full-cream milk is preferred.

• Pastry dough – if you already have a favorite recipe for making pastry dough, feel free to use that.  Otherwise, give my pasta frolla recipe a try!

Preparation

Start making pasticciotti by preparing your molds or muffin tins.

Grease each one with some butter and a dusting of flour.

Prepare the Italian pastry cream by heating milk on a small or medium-sized saucepan, placed over medium heat.

While waiting for the milk, combine egg yolk, sugar, cornstarch, and lemon zest in a medium mixing bowl.

Use a whisk to mix.

Slowly pour the heated milk on the egg mixture while constantly whisking the mixture.

Do not pour the milk all at once, or you might end up cooking the eggs instead of making crema pasticciotto.

Pour the pastry cream back into the saucepan and bring to a slow boil and until it has thickened to your desired consistency.

Set crema pasticciotto aside to cool.

Preheat up the oven to 180°C (350°F).

Start rolling your pasta frolla and place them on your molds or tins.  

Leave some pastry dough hanging out on the tins’ side; you will be using this part later for sealing each pasticciotto.

Prepare (cut out) the pastry dough for covering the top of your pasticciotti as well.

Use a spoon to add pastry cream to each tin.  Try not to put more than the top of the tin. 

Cover each mold with the rest of the prepared pastry dough.  

Fold the top part under the lower dough to seal the sides and ensure that no cream will seep through.

Brush pasticciotti with egg whites.

Place in the oven for twenty to twenty-five minutes or until they turned golden.

Serve — enjoy your pasticciotto Leccese with a dusting of powdered sugar, if desired.

Helpful tips

• If you are using your own pastry dough, try not to make it too sweet.  Remember that you are adding the cream later, and the resulting pasticciotto might become overly sweet.

• Do not add the hot milk into the eggs all at once — or you’ll end up cooking the yolks.

• Muffin tins or mini-tart forms are great alternatives if you don’t have the molds used in this recipe. I just got lucky that my mother-in-law gave them to me. 🙂

But you can also find pasticciotti molds in Amazon Italy.

Can I add vanilla in the cream?

Absolutely.

Vanilla extract is fine, but using a vanilla pod is even better.

What can I serve with it?

Coffee.

I always have mine with an espresso (and I would have it no other way).

Pasticciotto is best served warm and heating it in the microwave for a few seconds will always do the trick.  

Be careful when eating though, hot pastry cream CAN burn!  Enjoy!

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