Back from Italy with Fabulous Pastry

So I spent the last 10 days of October in Florence with my mom. We went with several missions in mind, most of them having to do with food, but also involving silk scarves, leather gloves, patio umbrellas, chocolate, - oh right, that's food again - and wine bottle stoppers with beautiful Murano glass tops. More to come on all of those things - there are great buys in Florence even with the dollar at a terrible exchange for the Euro. Did I mention the chocolate? Here's one sweet place - http://www.cioccolatobecagli.it/

But, the one thing I went over there for above all others was to figure out the secret behind the Sfoglia di Riso. This pastry is an Italian staple - at least in Florence. Sfoglia (plural - sfoglie) means folder. The folder in this case is an envelop of sweet puff pastry, folded over a filling and baked until the puff pastry is shattering and golden and the filling spreads out inside and marries with the pastry in a sublime and fabulous way. There are folders filled with pastry cream, sweet rice custard, apricot, ricotta, chocolate, and other things as well - apple, pineapple, blackberry - the list goes on. Anyway, I had happily eaten my weight in these, both in 2005 and earlier this year when we were there in June. But I couldn't turn up anything on the internet or in cookbooks - apparently it is SO easy or intuitive that no recipe is required. OR, it's simply something that no one makes at home - I mean why would you? you can go into any caffe or bar and get one, warm, freshly baked every morning, for about $1.10 (Euro 0.85). Either way, they were a mystery to me, so this trip I resolved to figure them out.

After several false starts, I managed to talk my way into a pastry shop near the central market - even though they thought I was a little deranged, they agreed to let me watch the production - so from 6:00 AM until 7:30 AM one moring of the vacation, that's exactly what I did.

Oh my god - it was possibly the most fun I had on the whole trip! A tiny little kitchen with one long marble table, a dough sheeter, a proofing cabinet, some ovens and some cooling racks - the mixers looked to be in the small room next door. I watched the sfoglie go together, as well as the morning croissants, which they call brioche - go figure. Matteo, the pastry chef, was very nice, stopping his lightening-speed assembly long enough for me to get one picture of the filling going in.

This weekend, I tried it myself. The results, while not perfect because the dough distorted a little on me, were completely authentic in taste and texture - I made a double large batch of puff pastry from Rose Levy Bernabaum's cookbook, which turned out to be about 4 times too much! But nevermind, it freezes. I made 7 pastries - 6 with pastry cream and one, the best by far, with a mix of pastry cream and dad's apricot preserves. I have the rounds cut out for 27 more in the freezer! Perhaps I will be throwing a breakfast party one of these weekends . . . . More to come on Italy later on.

Torta Setteveli

"Seven Veils Cake" This cake consists of six different components, and nine layers, so the initial mystery is why it’s called seven veil cake, but it turns out that that’s not critical to assembly or enjoyment. The inspiration to make this was sparked by Ms. Adventures in Italy, a site I linked to just last week. Turns out we both have October birthdays, and that was basically enough.

Oh that and the picture there is just sublime. I will clearly be researching this next week when I am in Florence. But in the meantime, this is the way it turned out this weekend.

It was fabulous, and I am writing it here the way I made it, but lots of refinements are in order. The chocolate disks and chocolate cereal praline came out too hard, maybe some corn syrup is needed to make them soft even when they're cold. And frankly I think it could use another layer of chocolate sponge cake. More to come . . . .

The assembly – starting at the bottom

Chocolate sponge cake
Chocolate cereal praline
Hazelnut Bavarian cream
Chocolate disk
Hazelnut Bavarian cream
Chocolate disk
Chocolate mousse
Chocolate ganache, poured as a glaze

Oooh la la.

Chocolate disks and cereal praline – Cut 3 pieces of waxed or parchment paper and trace a 9” circle on each. Take 13 oz. (380 g.) of bittersweet chocolate – chips or pieces are ok, or chop some blocks – melt over low heat with 4 oz. butter. I used Guittard bittersweet pieces for this – bigger than chips but not by much. Heat gently until just melted – it should be just soft and have some body – not super liquid.

Spread approx ¼ to 1/3 of the mixture onto the paper to fill the disk you’ve traced out. Repeat to make a second disk. Stir 1 cup rice crispies cereal into the remaining chocolate and spread to form a third disk.
Then make a Chocolate Sponge Cake – use a 10” springform pan, lined with parchment or waxed paper - I used a 9" pan for a planned 9" finished product and found that sponge cake shrinks. Kind of a lot. I would just use a chocolate genoise and maybe bake it in a jelly roll pan and then cut out one or two rounds. But these are the ingredients I used. Technique is too long to include here.

3 eggs, separated
¼ c plus 1T sugar
1/8 t. cream of tartar
¼ cup cake flour
3 T cocoa
Pinch salt

Chocolate Mousse - from the Joy of Cooking – 2 egg whites, stiffly beaten; 4 oz. semi sweet chocolate, 2 T rum, ¼ cup sugar, 1 cup whipping cream, whipped. Make a syrup of the sugar and the rum. Melt chocolate with 3 T of the heavy cream. Stir in the syrup and let cool. Fold in beaten egg whites and whipped cream. This is the whipped cream going in - egg whites are already mixed in. Let chill in the fridge for at least an hour.

Hazelnut Bavarian Cream – 3 egg yolks, 1 envelope gelatin, pinch salt, ¼ cup sugar, 3 oz. hazelnut praline paste, 1 cup milk, 3/4 cup whipping cream, whipped. The technique for a Bavarian Cream is basically to mix the yolks, sugar, salt and gelatin. Scald the milk, and add the hazelnut praline paste to the hot milk, then cook the ingredients together as for a custard. Strain if necessary. Let cool in the fridge 1 to 2 hours, stirring occassionally, then add the whipped cream, which is what is shown in the picture.

Chocolate glaze – 4 oz. chocolate, ½ cup whipping cream, 1T butter – melt together over low heat – stir into pourable glaze. Don't have it too hot when you pour it on the torte.

Assemble by stacking the layers in a springform pan. Hold out 1 cup of the chocolate mousse and don't put the glaze on yet. Chill at least 3 hours.

Take off the spring form side, then ice the side of the torte with the remaining mousse. Then pour the glaze on. The chilled dessert will arrest the glaze so it doesn't run all over. You may need to work the glaze over the top and encourage it down the sides just a bit with an offset spatula.

Yeah, it was good.