Sfogliatelle Ricce Recipe

Sfogliatelle Ricce recipe, a traditional pastry from the Amalfi coast filled with a delicious cream.

This recipe is a little challenging, and it is better if at least one step is done with two people, but the rewards are very sweet!

Ingredients

For 2 Dozen(s)

For the Sfogliatelle:

1 pound 00 flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons honey
3/4 cup + 1 tablespoon water
8 ounces lard

For the Filling:

1 1/2 cups water
pinch of salt
4 1/2 ounces fine semolina - Rimacinata
5 1/4 ounces powdered sugar, plus extra for garnishing
4 1/2 ounces whole milk ricotta
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon orange extract
pinch cinnamon
3/4 ounce candied orange peel
3/4 ounce citron

Directions

Make the Filling:

Put a small saucepan over a high flame and bring the water and a pinch of salt to a boil.
Once the water boils, stream in the semolina little by little and stir constantly with a wooden spoon. Cook for another minute and remove from heat.
Set aside and let the semolina cool completely.
In a large bowl combine the powdered sugar and the egg. Using an electric mixer mix until smooth . Add the ricotta, the vanilla extract, the orange extract and the cinnamon. Mix until fully incorporated.
Using a wooden spoon, break up the semolina in small pieces and add it to the bowl. Using a spatula mix everything together to form a smooth cream.
If the cream still has some lumps, use the electric mixer to smooth it out by mixing for a minute or two. Fold in the candied fruit and store in the fridge.

To make the Sfogliatelle:

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment combine the flour, the salt, the honey and the water.
Let everything mix on medium speed for a good 10 minutes.
Note that the dough will be kind of dry and crumbly. It will not form a ball. That is fine.
Transfer the dough to a wooden board and start putting all the crumbs together to form a ball.
Start kneading the dough until the ball comes together and it feels supple and smooth. The kneading process will take about 10 minutes.
Coat the dough with a thin coat of lard, wrap it in plastic paper and let it rest for 1 hour at room temperature.
On a long table roll out a sheet of wax paper at least 9 feet long.
After 1 hour, take the dough and divide in half.
Take one half and leave the the other half in the plastic paper.
Attach the pasta roller to your stand mixer or use any other pasta roller that you may have. Set the roller to the widest setting.
With your hands flatten the dough as much as you can and begin to the pass it through the roller. The first few times the dough will rip, not to worry, keep folding the dough and keep passing it through the rollers. Eventually it will no longer rip and the dough will become smooth and velvety.
*At this point you will need two people to perform the next step!
Once you have a sheet that is nice and smooth, set the pasta roller to next to the thinnest setting (on the Kitchen Aid I set it to 8).
Pass the dough through the roller and be careful to catch the thin layer of dough that will come out. Here you need two people to catch it without letting it rip. Once you catch it, gently deposit it the sheet of dough on the wax paper that you laid on the table.
Starting from one end, put some lard on your fingers and spread it over the entire surface of the dough. Do it gently as you do not want to rip the dough.
Once you have covered the entire surface with lard, start from one end and begin to roll the dough into a log as tight as possible until you reach the other end. You will have a log about 2 1/2 inches tick.
Apply a coating of lard over the entire log, wrap it in plastic paper and store it in the fridge.
Repeat the same process for the other half of the dough.
Refrigerate overnight or for at least 5 hours.
Pre-heat the oven to 400F.
Take each log and cut it in slices of a little less that 1/2 inch. Take each slice and with your thumb press all around toward the center of the dough so that it spreads and forms a cone (see photo below).
Fill each cone with two teaspoons of filling, close the end and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Once you have made all the sfogliatelle, bake them for 27-28 minutes.
Once they cool, you can optionally sprinkle them with powdered sugar and serve them.