CROSTATA - FRANGIPANE PLUM FILLING / DARING BAKER'S 2011 CHALLENGE

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. 

Crostata an Italian baked dessert Tart. The base of a crostata is pasta frolla (or pastafrolla), sweet short crust pastry (or sweet tart dough) made of flour, sugar, butter and eggs.  Pasta frolla is versatile: it provides the base to make crostata with fruit preserves, pastry cream, fresh fruit, ricotta, and other ingredients, and, by itself, it makes very nice cookies. It is traditionally prepared by folding the edges of the dough over the top of the jam/marmalade filling, creating a more "rough" look, rather than a uniform, circular shape. The jams that are traditionally used as a filling are cherries, peaches, apricots, berries. The crostata can also be filled with pieces of fresh fruit and pastry cream,  but then it is called torta di frutta. A typical central Italian variety replaces jam with ricotta mixed with sugar, cocoa or pieces of chocolate and anisetta; this is called crostata di ricotta.

For filling its our own choice, So I made Frangipane Plum filling which is our favorite one. Since I had so much plum I combined with the frangipane(Almond cream), you can choose any of your favorite fruit like Peach, apple, pear etc. Frangipane is a filling made from or flavored like almond. This filling can be used in a variety of ways including cakes, tarts and other assorted pastries.  So here goes the challenge.

Pasta frolla

Ingredients:
 

     Superfine sugar - 1/2 c. minus 1 tablespoon or Powdered sugar - scant 3/4 cup
     Unbleached all-purpose flour - 1 and 3/4 cup
     Salt - a pinch
     Cold unsalted butter -   1 stick (8 tablespoons) cut into small pieces
     Grated zest of half a lemon (you could also use vanilla sugar as well)
     1 large egg and 1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten in a small bowl

Making pasta frolla by hand:

   1. Whisk together sugar, flour and salt in a bowl.
   2. 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 an implement of choice.
   3. 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).
   4. Add the lemon zest to your flour/butter/egg mixture.
   5. Use a fork to incorporate the liquid into the solid ingredients, and then use your fingertips.
   6. Knead lightly just until the dough comes together into a ball.
   7. 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.
  
Making pasta frolla with a food processor:

   1. Put sugar, flour, salt, and lemon zest in the food processor and pulse a few times to mix.
   2. Add butter and pulse a few times, until the mixture has the consistency of coarse meal.
   3. Empty food processor's bowl onto your work surface
   4. See step 3 above and continue as explained in the following steps (minus the lemon zest, which you have already added).

 

 

Variation for Pasta frolla:

1. If you want, you can make the pasta frolla using a combination of all-purpose flour and whole-wheat pastry flour.

2.If you choose to try this variation, use 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour and 3/4 cup whole-wheat pastry flour.

   Assembling and Baking :

   1. Heat the oven to 375ºF [190ºC/gas mark 5].
   2. Take the pasta frolla out of the fridge, unwrap it and cut away ¼ of the dough. Reserve this dough to make the lattice top of the crostata. Refrigerate this dough while you work on the tart base.
   3. To help roll the crostata dough, keep the dough on top of the plastic wrap that you had it wrapped in. This can help rolling the dough and can also help when transferring the dough to your pan. You can also use parchment paper for this. However, you can also roll the dough directly on a work surface if you prefer.
   4. Lightly dust the top of the dough and your work surface (if you’re rolling directly on a work surface) with flour. Keep some flour handy to dust the dough as you go along.
   5. If the dough is very firm, start by pressing the dough with the rolling pin from the middle to each end, moving the rolling pin by a pin's width each time; turn the dough 180 degrees and repeat; when it softens, start rolling.
   6. Roll the dough into a circle about 1/8th inch (3 mm) thick.
   7. If you used the plastic wrap or parchment paper as rolling surface, flip dough over the pan, centering it, and delicately press it all around so the corners are well covered. Peel away the plastic wrap.
   8. Trim the excess dough hanging over the edges of the pan. Press the remaining dough around the border into the sides of the pan making sure the border is an even thickness all the way around.
   9. Prick the bottom of the dough with a fork in several places. 
10. Bake it in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes. Cool it until you prepare the filling.

Frangipane Plum Filling

Ingredients :

Butter - 3/4 stick butter( 6 tbsp)
Sugar - 1/3 + 2 tbsp
Egg - 1 and 1/2 egg
Almond powder - 1/2 cup
Flour - 1 and 1/2 table spoon
Almond essence - little or Vanilla essence - little
Plum - 6 quartered ( or any fruit of your choice Apple, pear, peach etc)

Method :

1. Beat the soften butter and sugar well.
2. Add the egg beat well.
3. Now add the Almond flour/powder and Apf.
4. Beat well and add the flavors.

Arranging  the Crostata :

1.  Pour the filling in the baked Pasta frolla.
2. Arrange the fruits and Bake them at at 180°C (356°F) preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes.
3. To check whether it is baked or not , they should not be jiggly.

4. Brush it with Peach preserve and dust it with powdered sugar.

Serve with Whipped cream or Icecream !!!