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The Bakery 100 · make it at home

Sfogliatelle ricce

Overnight, 1 hr 30 min hands-on · 12 pastries

Naples' shell-shaped pastry: dozens of paper-thin, crackling layers around semolina, ricotta and candied orange. A project, worth it.

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The real one

You need

• Dough: 500 g bread flour (4 cups)
• 200 ml water (3/4 cup + 2 tbsp)
• 1 tbsp honey
• 10 g salt (1 3/4 tsp)
• 150 g lard or soft butter (2/3 cup), for brushing
• Filling: 250 ml water (1 cup)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 90 g fine semolina (1/2 cup)
• 250 g ricotta, drained (1 cup)
• 90 g sugar (1/2 cup)
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 50 g candied orange peel (1/3 cup), finely chopped
• Powdered sugar, to serve

How to make it

1. Dough (15 min, then overnight): Mix flour, water, honey and salt into a very stiff dough (add water by the teaspoon only if it won't come together). Knead or run through a pasta machine several times until smooth. Wrap and refrigerate overnight.
2. Filling (15 min): Bring the water and salt to a boil, whisk in the semolina and cook, stirring, 3 to 4 minutes into a thick paste. Spread on a plate and cool. Beat in the ricotta, sugar, yolk, cinnamon, vanilla and candied orange until smooth. Chill.
3. Roll paper-thin (30 min): Cut the dough in 4. Run each through a pasta machine to the thinnest setting, into long ribbons about 12 cm wide. On a long table, stretch each ribbon even thinner with your hands until you can see through it.
4. Build the log (15 min): Brush a ribbon with soft lard and roll it up tightly from one end, stretching as you go. When it ends, overlap the next ribbon and keep rolling, brushing each, until you have a tight log about 6 cm thick. Wrap and chill at least 2 hours, until firm.
5. Shape the shells (20 min): Trim the ends and cut 1.5 cm slices. Grease your hands. Hold a slice, and with your thumbs press from the center outward, pushing the layers into a cone so they fan and slide like a telescope. Fill each cone with a heaped tablespoon of filling and pinch the opening lightly closed.
6. Bake (25 min): Bake on a lined tray at 210C (410F) for 20 to 25 minutes until deep golden and the ridges crackle. Dust with powdered sugar and eat warm.

Tips

• The thinner the dough, the more it crackles; stretch until it's like tissue.
• For an easier frolla version, wrap the filling in a short sweet pastry instead.

Chef Amazing's own home version of sfogliatella, in our words; not any bakery's recipe.