Sfogliatella
Reputedly Naples' hardest pastry, and one of the few where the layers are not made by folding. The dough is stretched to a translucent sheet, greased and rolled into a tight log — the layers come from the coils of the roll, not from folds. Slices are then cut and pushed out into cones with the thumbs, splaying the coils into a fan that opens in the oven like a shell.
Your own work in that: 1 h 15 min.
- Mixing 20 min
- Resting the dough 240 min
- Stretching and rolling 45 min
- Chilling the log 300 min
- Filling 25 min
- Shaping the shells 30 min
- Baking 35 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneKnead a hard, tight dough
Mix the flour with the water, honey and salt and knead for 10 minutes. The dough should be hard and unyielding, with no extra water — its gluten is what will later hold a sheet stretched to translucency. Wrap in film.
Ingredients: 500 g strong bread flour · 190 ml water · 20 g honey · 1 tsp salt · 250 g lard
Rest it four hours
Leave it in the fridge 4 hours. The gluten has to relax completely; stretched sooner the dough springs back and tears in the middle. After resting it is soft and obedient despite the tight knead.
Ingredients: 500 g strong bread flour · 190 ml water · 20 g honey · 1 tsp salt · 250 g lard
Stretch the dough until translucent
Divide into four, roll each piece out and then stretch it by hand on the table until the wood grain shows through. A pasta machine at its thinnest setting does the same faster. Each sheet should end up about a metre long.
Ingredients: 500 g strong bread flour · 190 ml water · 20 g honey · 1 tsp salt · 250 g lard
The table shows through — only then is it thin enough.Grease with lard and roll tight
Spread the sheet thickly with soft lard and roll it up lengthways into a very tight log, joining each new sheet onto the last. The fat between the coils is what separates the layers in the oven — with too thin a coat of fat, the pastry bakes dense.
Ingredients: 500 g strong bread flour · 190 ml water · 20 g honey · 1 tsp salt · 250 g lard
Tight, no air — a loose log gives crooked shells.Chill the log overnight
Wrap the log in film and refrigerate 5 hours or overnight. The lard must firm up so the log cuts into clean slices; a warm log smears apart at the first cut.
Ingredients: 500 g strong bread flour · 190 ml water · 20 g honey · 1 tsp salt · 250 g lard
Cook the semolina filling
Bring the milk to a boil with the salt, rain in the semolina in a thin stream, stirring, and cook 5 minutes to a thick mass. Spread on a plate and cool, about 20 minutes, then beat with the ricotta, sugar, egg, peel and cinnamon. The filling should be paste-thick — a loose one escapes in the oven.
Ingredients: 250 ml milk · 80 g semolina · 250 g ricotta · 80 g sugar · 1 pcs egg · 60 g candied peel · ½ tsp cinnamon · 1 pinch salt
Cut slices and push them into cones
Cut 1.5 cm slices and push each out with your thumbs from the centre outwards, until the coils splay into a shallow cone. This is the hard part: the motion works from the centre while the slice turns in your hands, and the wall must stay an even thickness.
Ingredients: 500 g strong bread flour · 190 ml water · 20 g honey · 1 tsp salt · 250 g lard
Thumbs push from the centre while the slice turns.Fill, seal and bake hot
Spoon filling into each cone, seal the edges into a shell and bake 35 minutes at 200°C. High heat drives water out of the dough sharply, and that is what fans the layers open. Dust with icing sugar once slightly cooled.
Ingredients: 30 g icing sugar
Before you start
Sfogliatella frolla — the easier one
Naples knows two versions: riccia with the layers and frolla, made from shortcrust shaped into a dome with the same filling. Frolla is a couple of hours' work instead of two days, and in Naples both versions have their devotees.
Lard, not butter
Lard is the traditional fat. It is pure fat and stays pliable when chilled, so the coils can be pushed apart with the thumbs without cracking. Cold butter sets hard and crumbles as you shape, and the water it contains robs the layers of crispness. If you would rather avoid lard, use clarified butter — not ordinary butter.
Eat on the day
Sfogliatelle lose their crispness within hours as moisture from the filling moves into the layers. Shaped but unbaked shells freeze beautifully — bake straight from frozen, adding 5 minutes.
