Toscanella Recipe
There are three recipes within this recipe: The puff pastry dough recipe, the “crema” recipe, and the risotto rice pudding recipe. Yes, all three are needed to make Toscanellas.
1. Puff Pastry
▪ 2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
▪ 1 1/4 cups cake flour
▪ 1 tablespoon salt
▪ 1 1/4 cups ice water
▪ 4 sticks (1 pound) very cold unsalted butter
Makes 2 1/2 pounds of dough
Mixing the Dough: Put all-purpose flour, cake flour, and salt in the work bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Pulse just to mix. Add water all at once, pulsing until dough forms a ball on the blade. Remove dough from machine, form into a ball, and slash the top in a tic-tac-toe pattern, with a small sharp knife. Wrap dough in a damp towel and refrigerate 5 minutes.
Incorporating the Butter: Place butter between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and beat with a rolling pin until it flattens into a 1 inch thick square. Unwrap the chilled dough and place it on a work surface dusted with all-purpose flour. Roll into a 10-inch square. Starting from the center of the square, roll out over each corner to create a thick center pad with “ears” or flaps. Place the cold butter in the middle of the dough and fold ears over butter, stretching as needed so they overlap slightly and encase butter completely. It should be about 8 inches square.
Making the Turns: Gently but firmly press the rolling pin against the top and bottom edges of the square. Then, keeping the work surface and dough well floured, roll the dough into a rectangle that is three times as long as the square you started with, about 24 inches. (Don’t worry about the width of the rectangle; if you get the 24 inches, everything else will work itself out.) With this first roll, it is particularly important that the butter be rolled evenly along the length and width of the rectangle; check when you start rolling that the butter is moving along well, and roll a bit harder or more evenly, if necessary, to get a smooth, even dough-butter sandwich. With a pastry brush, brush off the excess flour from the top of the dough, and fold the rectangle up from the bottom and down from the top in thirds, like a business letter, brushing off the excess flour. You have completed one turn.
Rotate the dough so that the closed fold is to your left, like the spine of a book. Repeat the rolling and folding process, rolling the dough to a length of 24 inches and then folding in thirds. This is the second turn.
Chilling the Dough: If the dough is still cool and no butter is oozing out, you can give the dough another two turns now. If the condition of the dough is iffy, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes. Each time you refrigerate the dough, mark the number of turns you’ve completed. It is best to refrigerate the dough for 30 to 60 minutes between each set of two turns.
The total number of turns needed is six.
2. The Crema (Pastry Cream)
▪ 1 cup milk
▪ 1 tsp vanilla
▪ 1/4 cup sugar
▪ Pinch of salt
▪ 2 large egg yolks
2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
Put the milk, 1/4 cup sugar, salt, egg yolks, and cornstarch in a 2-quart saucepan. Stir with wire whisk, bring to the boil, whisking constantly, and let the pastry cream boil for one minute. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla, scrape pastry cream into a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and a layer of ice cubes. Leave ice cubes in place until the cream cools.
3. Risotto Rice Pudding
Ingredients
▪ 1/2 cup water
▪ Pinch salt
▪ 1/2 tablespoon butter
▪ 1 cups whole milk
▪ 2 tablespoons sugar
Directions
Bring water, salt, and butter to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add the rice, return to a boil, and then reduce the heat to the lowest setting. Shake the pan occasionally and cook until rice has absorbed the water but it still al dente, about 15 minutes.
Bring milk, sugar, vanilla, and a few dashes of cinnamon to a simmer in a separate saucepan. Add the cooked rice and cook at a simmer over medium-low heat until rice absorbs most of the milk and mixture starts to get thick and silky, about 10 to 15 minutes.
Transfer pudding to a large bowl and cool to room temperature. Place in refrigerator until cool and set.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER!!!
Toscanella Cream: Once cooled, mix together the crema and the risotto rice pudding until lightly blended. Set aside.
The Pastry: Preheat oven to 350°F. On a lightly floured surface, roll the puff pastry to 1/4 inch thickness. Flour the edges of a 4-inch round cookie cutter and cut 8 rounds from the dough. Clean the work surface and sprinkle it generously with sugar. While you work on one round, keep the others covered with plastic wrap. Place a pastry round on the sugar and dust the top lightly with flour. Roll until it elongates to an 8-inch oval. Brush flour off the top and put the oval on an unbuttered baking sheet, sugar side up. Repeat with the remaining pieces, leaving just a little room between each pastry on the baking sheet.
Baking the Pastries: Spoon a walnut-sized dollop of Toscanella cream onto the center of each oval and fold the pastry over top of the dollop until it looks like a little pocket. Bake about 35 minutes, until golden and beautifully puffed. As soon as the pastries are baked, transfer them to a cooling rack.
Buon appetito, enjoy!!!!
