Crostata di Frutta Fresca

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.


A crostata is an italian tart dessert. Pasta frolla is the base (pastry). I had different ideas for the filling. It was the end-of-year exam time for me, so I decided to go with a simple and less time consuming pastry cream filling with fresh fruits. The pasta frolla was blind-baked, then filled with custard and topped with fresh strawberries and kiwis. On hindsight, the addition of peaches would have made it more colourful and add more taste.


Ingredients
1.  100g caster sugar
2.  235g flour
3.  a pinch of salt
4.  115g cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
5.  grated zest of half a lemon
6.  1 large egg and 1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten


Steps
1.     Combine the caster sugar, flour, salt, butter and lemon zest in the bowl of a food processor
2.     Pulse until the mixture resembles bread crumbs
3.     Pour the mixture out onto the counter and make a well in the middle
4.     Pour the eggs into the well and using a fork, slowly incorporate the butter mixture in
5.     Using your fingertips, lightly knead until it comes together into a ball
6.     Shape the dough into a flat disc and wrap it with plastic wrap
7.     Chill the dough for at least 2 hours
8.     After 2 hours, remove the dough from the fridge and roll it out till about 3mm thick
9.     Transfer rolled out dough to the baking tin and lightly press it into all corners
10.   Remove excess dough by rolling the rolling pin over the top of the tart tin
11.   Tear a piece of baking paper that would sufficiently cover the base and sides of the tin
12.   Crush the baking paper, open it up and line the unbaked dough
13.   Pour some uncooked rice onto the baking paper and place it in the oven for 20 mins at 180 degrees C
14.   Remove the pasta frolla shell from the oven and take away the baking paper with the uncooked rice
15.   Put the pasta frolla back into the oven and bake for another 5 minutes or until the edges start to brown
16.   Remove and let cool

Butter and dry ingredients

Dough ready for chilling

Blind-baking

Empty tart shells

Assembly
Fill the pasta frolla shell with pastry cream (custard), and top with slices of fresh fruit. 


The final product was yummy! The pasta frolla wasn't too sweet and it was good enough to be eaten on its own. I munched on an empty tart shell while making my way to the airport to fly home. I'm currently at home (Singapore) now. This was a good second DB challenge. Looking forward to the next one!