Pasta Frolla (Italian Sweet Shortcrust Pastry) is a traditional Italian recipe for the rich sweet shortcrust pastry flavoured with lemon zest. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Italian version of: Italian Sweet Shortcrust Pastry (Pasta Frolla).
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Ingredients:
250g (1 ¼ cups) butter
180g (1 cup less 1 tbsp) sugar
4 large egg yolks (about 75-80 g)
400g "00" grade cake flour
Finely-grated zest of ½ lemon
a pinch of salt
Method:
Remove the butter from the refrigerator 5 minutes before preparing the pastry, weigh it, dice it and add it to the sugar, grated lemon zest and a pinch of salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough leaf or hook. Knead in the mixer, or by hand on a pastry board or in a bowl, until everything is well combined, but without turning the butter into a cream.
Form a well in the dough add the egg yolks and continue stirring until well combined.
Finally sift the flour onto the mixture. Work (or knead) the mixture until the flour is completely incorporated into the dough, yielding the classic consistency of the pastry (but be careful not to over work).
Turn the pastry onto your work surface and knead it for a few seconds then shape into a rectangular block, not too thick, so the dough will cool faster (this means that if needed, it can be used a few hours later).
Wrap the pastry in a clean cloth or clingfilm (plastic wrap) and place in your refrigerator to rest for at least 2-3 hours. (Even better, prepare it the day before and let it rest overnight.)
When the pastry is needed, remove from the refrigerator, cut it into small pieces and work it in a stand mixer, or by hand, for about 1–2 minutes — just long enough to soften it slightly and make it elastic again — so it assumes a consistency suitable for rolling out with a rolling pin.
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