custard

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If your birthday (compleanno) is on December 7, the best place to live is Milano, because on that day the city celebrates its patron saint, Sant'Ambrogio (Saint Ambrose), and it is a holiday.

I lived in Milan for almost ten years, and studied at the Catholic University, headquartered in two elegant Renaissance cloisters (chiostri rinascimentali) adjacent to the splendid Romanesque church (chiesa romanica) of Saint Ambrose, in my opinion one of the most beautiful Italian churches.

The neighborhood of Sant'Ambrogio has always been my favorite place in my adoptive city. For the big holiday of December 7, the area around the church becomes the scene of the Fiera degli "O bei! O bei!" (fair of the "How pretty! How pretty!" a reference to the exclamations of admiration pronounced by would-be buyers while looking at the wares for sale). If the holiday and the fair were not enough, December 7 is the opening night of the opera season at La Scala. Given the chronological proximity of December 7 to Christmas, and the fact that December 8 is a religious holiday in Italy, my birthday has always marked for me the beginning of the Holiday Season (le feste).

A few weeks ago, at the end of a delicious meal, my friend Christine of Christine Cooks offered us an excellent pumpkin pie with a surprise layer underneath the pumpkin filling. This inspired me to try and make pumpkin pie (a new endeavor for me) with an Italian twist to the layering concept suggested by Christine: the result was a crostata di zucca con la crema, which I decided it would be my birthday cake (torta di compleanno). It will also be my Christmas dessert (dolce di Natale).

The crostata has three components:

the crust, made of my version of pasta frolla (or pastafrolla, sweet shortcrust pastry)
the pumpkin filling, made according to this recipe from EatingWell
the crema, made according to my recipe, based on my aunt Lucia's.

First the crust, a recipe I developed based on my taste (Artusi's are the reference recipes); in this case I decided to use vanilla extract instead of the traditional lemon zest). Note: I use organic ingredients whenever possible.

1 cup whole-wheat (or whole-grain) pastry flour
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, cut into small pieces
1 large or extra-large egg
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
a pinch of salt

Make a fountain with the flour, sugar and salt and place butter, egg and vanilla extract in the center. With your fingers, work butter and egg into the flour and sugar. Knead the dough just until the ingredients are well blended, make it into a ball, cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least half an hour. In the meantime, make the pumpkin filling, halving the quantities given in the recipe referenced above and slightly decreasing the sugar content to 1/3 cup. If you don't have the single spices, use 1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice mix.

Preheat the oven to 425 F. Make the crema, halving the quantities of the recipe referenced above and omitting the lemon peel. Instead, after taking the crema off the heat, add half a teaspoon of vanilla extract. You can use either two egg yolks or one egg (see note in the post with the recipe).

Spray with oil a 9" pie pan. Roll the crust into a circle wide enough to line the pie pan to the rim (sandwiching the dough between plastic wrap may be helpful). Using a fork, prick the crust in a few places. Pour the pumpkin filling into it and put in the oven. Bake for 12 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350 F and bake for 15 minutes. At this point, the pumpkin filling should be stable enough to support the layer of crema delicately spooned over it. Cover the edges with foil to prevent them from browning too quickly and bake for another 20 minutes, until the pumpkin layer is completely set. As usual, baking time is not an exact science, so adjust it as needed.

Take the crostata out of the oven and let it cool completely before cutting it. Refrigerate any leftovers, but take them out of the fridge in advance of eating them, so that the crostata is breeze-cool, not fridge-cold. This is a combination of my adoptive country's Holiday tradition of pumpkin pie and my country of origin's tradition of crostate.

I am hereby offering this bi-traditional dessert to Aspettando Natale / Waiting for Christmas, a special event hosted by Francesca of FrancescaV. The roundup for this event promises to be a firework of recipes, a perfect end of the year celebration.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

crostata di zucca e crema

or launch the crostata di zucca e crema audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

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crostata di zucca e crema

La crostata ha tre componenti:

la pasta frolla (ricetta personalizzata)
lo strato di zucca (ricetta dalla rivista EatingWell)
lo strato di crema (ricetta personalizzata sulla base di quella di mia zia Lucia).

Per quanto possibile, utilizzare ingredienti biologici. La pasta frolla (stavolta ho usato l'estratto di vaniglia invece della scorza di limone grattugiata):

130 g di farina integrale per dolci
55-60 g di burro tagliato a pezzetti
1 uovo
70 g di zucchero
mezzo cucchiaino di estratto di vaniglia naturale
un pizzico di sale

Fare la fontana con farina, zucchero e sale. Mettere al centro della fontana burro, uovo ed estratto di vaniglia e impastare con le dita fino a formare una massa omogenea. Avvolgere l'impasto con della pellicola trasparente e farlo riposare in frigorifero per almeno mezz'ora, mentre preparate il ripieno di zucca e la crema.

Per il ripieno di zucca (metà dose della ricetta di cui sopra e un po' meno zucchero):

120 g di purè di zucca (negli USA si trova già pronto, in scatola ed è molto denso – vedi nota)
1 uovo leggermente sbattuto
120 ml di latte magro evaporato (diversamente dal latte condensato, quello evaporato non contiene zucchero)
mezzo cucchiaino di estratto di vaniglia naturale
70 g di zucchero
5 g di amido di mais
mezzo cucchiaino raso di cannella in polvere
mezzo cucchiaino raso di zenzero in polvere
un pizzico di noce moscata
un pizzico di sale

In una ciotola, mescolare con la frusta i primi quattro ingredienti. In un'altra ciotola, unire gli altri ingredienti e poi aggiungerli a quelli liquidi attraverso un settaccio. Mescolare bene con la frusta. Nota: in una ricetta che ho trovato che parte dalla zucca fresca, dopo la cottura in forno, la zucca viene passata e poi lasciata sgocciolare su un telo steso su un setaccio per almeno due ore. Scaldare il forno a 220 C.

Per la crema (metà dose della ricetta di cui sopra):

250 ml di latte (io uso quello scremato)
2 tuorli o 1 uovo
35 g zucchero
15 g di farina
mezzo cucchiaino di estratto di vaniglia naturale

Scaldare il latte senza farlo bollire. In una ciotola, montare i tuorli (o l'uovo) con lo zucchero. Quando il composto è chiaro e spumoso, aggiungere la farina usando un setaccio e unirla al composto con la frusta. Aggiungere lentamente il latte, mescolare bene e mettere su fuoco basso. Mescolare spesso e, quando la crema comincia ad addensarsi, mescolare quasi continuamente. Quando la crema raggiunge il bollore, cuocere per uno-due minuti e poi rimuovere dal fuoco. Aggiungere la vaniglia e mescolare la crema per far scendere la temperatura. Mescolare poi di tanto in tanto per evitare la formazione della pellicola superficiale.

Oliare o imburrare una teglia del diametro di 23 cm e alta 3 cm (foto della teglia che si usa per fare la pie). Stendere la pasta frolla fino ad avere un cerchio che copre la teglia fino al bordo. Con una forchetta, bucherellare la superficie in alcuni punti. Versare il composto di zucca e cuocere per 12 minuti, poi abbassare la temperatura a 175 C e cuocere per altri 15 minutes. A questo punto lo strato di zucca dovrebbe essersi solidificato abbastanza da permettere di metterci sopra, delicatamente, la crema a cucchiaiate. Coprire i bordi con della carta stagnola (come nella foto) e cuocere in forno per altri 20 minuti, fino a quando lo strato di zucca si sia del tutto solidificato. La cottura in forno non è una scienza esatta, quindi, se necessario, aggiustate il tempo di cottura.

Tirare fuori dal forno la crostata e farla raffreddare completamente prima di tagliarla. Conservatela in frigorifero, ma non mangiatela fredda di frigorifero. In questa crostata ho congiunto la tradizionale pumpkin pie del mio paese adottivo (dolce che si mangia per Thanksgiving e per Natale) e le crostate del mio paese d'origine.

Presento questo dolce che unisce in se' due tradizioni all'evento speciale Aspettando Natale / Waiting for Christmas organizzato da Francesca di FrancescaV. Il riassunto finale sarà uno spettacolo di fuochi d'artificio culinari, perfetto per le celebrazioni di fine anno.

Zia Lucia passed away five years ago this week. She never married and lived all her life in Poggio Catino, a village in central Italy, in the house where she and all her siblings, among them my father, were born and grew up.

In my childhood and adolescence, she played the role of Fairy Godmother, knitting, sewing and cooking for me pretty much whatever I fancied. She taught me to make crema pasticcera, as a way of making me consume fresh (raw) milk, which I did not like to drink by itself. For decades, that was pretty much the only thing I could make in the kitchen, in the sense of both knowing how to make it and being allowed by my mother to make it in her kitchen.

When I made crema under my aunt’s direction, I would pour it in my special gold-rimmed china bowl and carry it to the dispensa, a walk-in pantry located in the coolest part of the house. The dispensa was a special cabinet of curiosities. My aunt made different kinds of jam, fruit in syrup, and giardiniera (pickled vegetable medley). She used ancient-looking glass jars to preserve fresh sausages in olive oil (salsicce sott’olio), let grapes dry into raisins and hung braids of garlic from nails hammered on the edge of the top shelf.

When mid-afternoon came around I retrieved my bowl of crema from the dispensa. Sometimes my aunt scattered on the smooth sunny surface some of her deep purple amarene sotto spirito (sour cherries preserved in alcohol) and I would eat my crema while sitting on the front steps of the house, basking in the sun, surrounded by her pots of hydrangeas, fuchsias and dahlias. I know that my aunt’s happiness in life was seeing me so completely content.

I didn’t get to say farewell to my aunt. And I didn’t get to ask her for her recipes for a long list of goodies she would make for her brothers and their families, when they visited her and for special occasions, like Christmas and Easter. I have decided that, instead of spending my energy regretting something I cannot change, I will invest it into improving my cooking skills.

Here is my recipe for crema pasticcera, derived from my aunt’s instructions. I no longer eat a bowl of crema for my afternoon snack. I usually make it as filling for crostata, using the ingredients listed below. Last summer I shared the recipe with Paz of The Cooking Adventures of Chef Paz and she honored me by using it to make a special anniversary dessert.

Ingredients:

2 extra-large eggs [see Notes below on alternatives]
1/3 cup sugar (65 g) [see Notes below on sweetness level]
500 ml milk (slightly more than 2 cups) [see Notes below on milk options]
3 strips of lemon peel about 3″ long and 1/2″ wide (using a potato peeler to cut the strips makes it easier to avoid cutting the white part of the lemon) [see Notes below on alternatives]
3 tablespoons pastry (or unbleached regular) flour (25 g) [see Notes below on alternatives]

Pour the milk into a pan, add the lemon peel and warm up to to well below boiling point. In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar until the mixture is bubbly. Sift the flour over the egg mixture and beat briefly until it is incorporated. Temper the egg mixture with a small quantity of milk, then slowly add the rest of the milk, mixing with a wooden spoon. Pour the mixture into the pan and set it to very low heat, stirring at least every couple of minutes. When the froth on the surface disappears completely, the crema starts to feel slightly thicker. From then on stir almost continuously. When the crema reaches boiling temperature and thickens, cook briefly (1-2 minutes), then remove the pan from the heat, remove the lemon peel, place the saucepan in a cold water bath, and stir the crema to bring down its temperature. While the crema cools down, stir it every now and then to prevent the formation of a film over it.

I remember my aunt telling me that the crema should not boil, but according to Harold McGee, it must do so. In the recipe, the addition of flour has the objective of making the crema able to hold its shape. As McGee explains in his book “On Food and Cooking,” cream fillings (to which category crema pasticcera belongs) must be boiled in order to get the desired effect, because, “egg yolks contain a starch-digesting enzyme, amylase, that is remarkably resistant to heat,” and, unless neutralized, will “digest the starch and turn the stiff cream into a pourable one” (page 98).

Notes

When I have leftover yolks, I use 1 egg and 2 yolks, or 4 yolks. Using all yolks makes a more traditional crema pasticcera. The crema in the photo above was made with 4 yolks that came from having made another batch of the exquisite chiffon cake from last month Daring Bakers’ challenge. My aunt’s version is lighter in color and texture.
My crema is not very sweet. You can certainly add more sugar.
I have made crema using whole milk and also lower fat alternatives (including non-fat milk). However, I have never tried to use a milk-substitute.
I sometimes use vanilla sugar instead of regular sugar. You can also make a vanilla-flavored crema, by infusing a piece of vanilla bean split in half lengthwise, in the heated milk for an hour or so before using it.
There are many recipes for crema, and some use different types of starch, like wheat starch and corn starch. I have never tried using them. The higher the amount of starch, the thicker the crema. Keep in mind though that crema thickens a bit as it cools.
When I made crema with my aunt, I used one egg and 250 ml (a cup) of milk. I sometimes make the same amount (for various uses), in which case the amount of sugar is 3 tablespoons (33 g), the amount of flour is 1 1/2 tablespoons (12 g) and the amount of lemon strip is half the one specified above.

All the possible variations make crema quite versatile. Did I say it that it is delicious?

This is my submission for the Apples & Thyme memoir event co-hosted by Jeni of The Passionate Palate and Inge of Vanielje Kitchen. Here is Jeni’s round-up and here is Inge’s roundup of Apples & Thyme #1.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

crema pasticcera

or launch the crema pasticcera audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

briciole

Simona Carini serves recipes and Italian words related to food

crostata di zucca e crema / pumpkin and pastry custard tart

crostata di zucca e crema

crema pasticcera di zia Lucia / pastry cream à la aunt Lucia