Pasticciotto Recipe (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!
Servings: 4
Calories: 335kcal
Equipment
- Medium-Sized Saucepan
Ingredients
- butter and flour, for greasing & dusting pasticciotti tins
- 1 single crust pastry dough (or pasta frolla)
For pasticciotti filling:
- 2 large eggs, separated (yolks for the cream and whites for brushing the pastry)
- 1 cup milk
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 lemon, grated zest
Instructions
Prepare equipment:
- Grease your pasticciotti tins or muffin forms with butter, and dust them with a bit of flour.
Prepare the Italian pastry cream:
- Heat milk on a small or medium-sized saucepan over medium heat.
- While waiting for the milk, use a medium mixing bowl and combine the egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch, and lemon zest; then mix with a whisk.
- Slowly pour the heated milk on the egg mixture while whisking continuously. Make sure you don't pour the milk all at once, or you might end up cooking the eggs.
- Pour the pastry cream back into the saucepan and bring to a slow boil and until it has thickened to your desired consistency.
- Set Italian pastry cream aside to cool.
Assembling & preparing pasticciotto Leccese:
- Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F).
- Roll your pastry dough using a rolling pin and arrange them on your greased pastry/muffin (pasticciotti) tins.
- Leave some dough hanging on the side of the tins; you need this later for sealing the pastry.
- Prepare (or cut out) the pastry dough for covering the top of each tin as well.
- Spoon some pastry cream into each tin --- do not fill to the rim.
- Cover each tin with the rest of the prepared pastry dough. Fold the top pastry under the lower pastry to seal the sides and to keep the cream intact.
- Brush the top of the pasticciotti with egg whites.
- Place in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until the pasticciotti turned golden on top.
- Serve and dust your Italian cream filled pastry with powdered sugar, if preferred.
Video
Notes
- Cook's Tip #1: Feel free to use your own pastry dough, but check that it's not too sweet. Remember that you are adding the cream later, and the resulting pasticciotto might become extremely sweet.
- Cook's Tip #2: If you don't have the pasticciotti molds that I used in this recipe, muffin tins or mini-tart forms are great substitutes.
- Cook's Tip #3: Make sure you don't add the hot milk with the eggs all at once --- or you'll end up with cooked yolks.
Nutrition
Calories: 335kcal | Carbohydrates: 53g | Protein: 10g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 99mg | Sodium: 404mg | Potassium: 168mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 12g | Vitamin A: 234IU | Calcium: 91mg | Iron: 3mg