Sfogliatelle Ricce - Authentic Recipe Step By Step
Try this iconic Sfogliatelle recipe (classic or small-batch!). Paper-thin layers of dough and delicious orange and cinnamon scented ricotta cream are simply irresistible.
Dissolve honey and salt in water. In a large bowl, add flour and water mix saving a few tablespoons for later. Mix with a fork or a Danish dough whisk until crumbly. Separate dough lumps from the dry flour left at the bottom.Add the remaining water to the dry flour and mix with your hands letting the dough absorb any remaining dry flour. The dough will be super lumpy and that's how it should be! It’ll all come together later in the process.Cover the dough and let sit for 30 minutes.Using a stand mixer? Follow the same process.
Once the dough is rested, briefly knead it with your hands. Again, it won't be perfectly smooth.Divide the dough in 4 parts.Pass the first part of the dough through the pasta machine on its widest setting. On Marcato Altas it's setting “0 ”. Fold it over on itself, rotate and pass again on the same thickness setting until you get a sheet of dough without holes and relatively smooth. Adjust the knob to the next setting (1 on Marcato Atlas) and pass the dough.Set the regulating knob on the pasta machine to the next setting (setting 2) and pass the dough again. If needed pass the dough on the same setting several times repeating the folding process, until you get a smooth and even sheet.Continue adjusting the thickness setting and passing the dough until you get to the middle setting (setting 4-5 on Atlas Marcato).Wrap each dough sheets in plastic and let rest for 30 minutes. Once the dough has rested, start working with one piece of the dough passing it through pasta machine until you get the thinnest sheet possible (setting 9 on Marcato Atlas Pasta Machine).IMPORTANT: at no stage you should need to dust the dough with flour. If you make it correctly it won't stick to the pasta machine. If you have the dough that sticks a little bit you can lightly dust it with flour at while you're still working it on the widest setting of the pasta machine but never after that!
Roll them dough sheets onto the rolling pin. The ends (handles) of the rolling pin should be settled between two water bottles or flour sacks to prevent the dough from touching the table.Repeat the same process with the remaining dough chunks.TOP TIP: if it's your first time making this recipe, divide the dough between two rolling pins, this way the dough will be easier to unroll at the next step.Cover the dough on the rolling pin with a plastic wrap and let rest 15 minutes.
Prepare lard at room temperature. If using butter, it should also be at room temperature (not melted!).Start to unfold the dough from the rolling pin. Stretch the dough to almost double its width and roll onto itself until you get a thin tight rope.Now thoroughly smear lard over the next section of the dough making sure to grease well the edges.Place your hands underneath the dough and gently stretch it outwards elongating it as much as possible without tearing. You should be able to almost double it in the width.Roll the greased piece and unfold another section.Repeat the greasing, stretching and rolling process until you’ve used all the dough from the rolling pin.As a result you should get a kind of dough log. Grease it all over with lard/butter, cover with a plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 3 hours or better yet overnight.
In the meantime prepare the cream.
Preparing the cream:
In a stove-top pot add water, salt and sugar. Stir well and bring the mixture to a boil.
2 cups water, ½ cup sugar, ¼ teaspoon salt, 60 grams butter
Constantly stirring slowly add semolina. Continue whisking to avoid the formation of the lumps and cook for 3 minutes. Let cool completely. You can cook semolina the day before and let it rest covered at room temperature.
¾ cup semolina flour
In a large bowl add cooked semolina and beat with a mixer until creamy. Add ricotta, egg, cinnamon, vanilla and orange blossom water (or extract). Beat until you get smooth and even texture.NOTE: if you don't have full ricotta this is the step where you add butter too.Add candied oranges, mix and set aside or in the fridge until the next day.
¼ cup candied orange peel, ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract, 1 tablespoon orange blossom water
Shaping & Baking Sfogliatelle
Take the sfogliatelle dough log out of the fridge and while it’s still covered with a plastic wrap gently but firmly squeeze and stretch it with your hands going from the center towards the sides.Remove the plastic wrap and cut off uneven sides of the log, then cut into approx ¾ inch (1.5-2 cm) thick slices.
To form the sfogliatelle cone, take a dough slice and start gently working it with your fingers.Using your thumbs and a rotating motion push the center of the slice out opening up dough layers and forming a cone shape. Be careful not to push the layers too much apart, you still want them to stay together.
Holding sfogliatella in one hand fill the cavity of the cone with ricotta cream. Make sure to fill with enough cream so that sfogliatelle stay full and puffy. If the cream is not enough they’ll simply flatten out in the oven.Put together the edges of the opening as you can, they don’t have to be perfectly sealed. The cream is thick enough to hold in the pastry.Place sfogliatelle on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Preheat the oven to 400F (200C).Bake sfogliatelle in a preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.
Serve warm generously dusted with confectioners’ sugar.
Notes
If you cannot find full fat ricotta use the best quality ricotta you can find and add butter to the pot together with milk as indicated in the recipe.