November 2010 Daring Baker's Challenge: Crostata

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.

This month I went all crazy and, instead of going for one challenge, I made TWO challenges: tiramisu and crostata.
As I joined the DB on April this year I missed the tiramisu challenge, so I wanted to give it a try and thus, I browsed the Internet to see if it was possible to combine both the crostata and the tiramisu. As you can see, I was succesful ^^
I found the recipe for the tiramisú filling here, and for the pasta frolla I used the 1st version provided by Simona.

The recipes:

Ingredients for the pasta frolla:

100g superfine sugar
235g unbleached all-purpose flour
a pinch of salt
115g cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg and 1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten in a small bowl
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method for the pasta frolla:

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.
4. Add the vanilla extract to your flour/butter/egg mixture.
5. Use a fork to incorporate the liquid into the solid ingredients, and then use your fingertips. Knead lightly just until the dough comes together into a ball.
6. 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.
7. Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
8. Roll out a batch of the pasta frolla and cover the base of the tart pan.
9. Cut a piece of parchment paper or aluminum foil large enough to cover the bottom of the crust and extend out a bit over the edges of the pan.
10. You can use pie weights or dry beans to blind bake. Place whatever weight you’re using directly on the parchment paper or aluminum foil in an even layer.
11. Place the crostata shell in the oven and bake for 20 minutes.
12. Remove the weights and parchment paper and continue baking the crostata shell until the border is light golden, about 5 minutes (watch carefully to avoid over-baking, which results in a hard shell). In the absence of weight, the crust may rise in the middle: if that occurs, gently push it back down with the back of a spoon.
13. Remove from the oven and let the crostata shell cool completely before proceeding. If you use a tart pan with removable bottom, release the base from the fluted tart ring, then slide the cooled crostata shell on a serving plate for filling.

Ingredients for the mascarpone cream for the tiramisú:

250g mascarpone cheese
25g icing sugar
1 tablespoon coffee
2 egg yolks
60g caster sugar
2 tablespoons coffee liquor
75g whipped cream

Method for the mascarpone cream for the tiramisú:

1. Mix the mascarpone with the icing sugar with a spoon after adding the tablespoon of coffee.
2. In another bowl, beat the egg yolks with the caster sugar and the coffee liquor.
3. Add the egg yolks to the mascarpone and mix until well combined.
4. Add the whipped cream and mix well.

Method for the assembling:

1. Spread some nutella over the bottom of the crostata shell.

2. Set in this way some coffee soaked savoiardi.

3. Now pour the mascarpone mixture over the savoiardi.

4. Spread the mascarpone mixture until it covers all the inside of the crostata. Decorate with some dusted cocoa powder.

The crostata looks ugly but I swear that it is delicious! It's like eating tiramisú with butter cookies!!!