You see it in every pastry shop in Italy and everyone’s crazy about it: the pasticciotto is a typical dessert of Lecce, capital of the Apulian baroque and the dough is made from a shell of fried short- crust pastry while classic vanilla pastry cream on the inside. We were lucky enough to learn the traditional way to make this dessert under the guidance of Gianna Greco. Greco is a chef who has been teaching all the secrets of Salento's tradition for years, in a cooking school located in the historic center of Lecce, to both tourists and non-tourists alike.
Preparing the pastry dough takes about an hour plus cooking time. To make it, you will need a short-crust pastry base and custard that can be made by following our instructions. Browse throughour tutorial to find all the steps necessary to making and baking the perfect pasticciotto.
Pasticciotto traditional recipe
Pastry ingredients
11 oz. 00 flour, 4 1/2 oz. sugar, Packet of yeast, 6 oz. lard, Pinch of salt, 2 egg yolks
Method
First, place the flour with the yeast, sugar and add the lard. Start kneading with your fingers only. Add the egg yolks, a pinch of salt and continue to knead until you obtain a homogeneous an compact mixture. Now cover in plastic wrap and let rest in the fridge for 30 minutes. Now it’s time to make the custard. Put four egg yolks and sugar in a saucepan. Whip the sugar and eggs with a whisk until fluffy. Add the beans of a vanilla stick and two tablespoons of flour, continuing to mix with a whisk to prevent lumps from forming. Now take two cups milk and pour slowly over the egg yolks. Set pot over heat until it starts to boil. It’s important to consistently keep whisking until finished. Once the cream has thickened, remove it from the heat and let cool.