Check out the original authentic recipe for torta Della nonna below!
Ingredients for Short Crust:
• 32pg of 00 Flour
• 140g of Icing Sugar
• 4 Egg Yolks
• 180g of Butter
• 2g of Salt
Ingredients for Custard Filling:
• 1L of Fresh Whole Milk
• 6 Egg Yolks
• 250g Caster Sugar
• 100g Corn Starch
• 1 Tbsp of Vanilla Extract
To Garnish:
• 50g Pine Nuts
•1 Tbsp of Icing Sugar
Directions:
1. Start preparing the shortcrust pastry by putting the cold butter into small pieces inside the cup of a food processor (robot with blades) and add the flour
2. Blend until the butter has become the size of the sand (this operation, in fact, is called sandblasting). Pour the mixture onto a pastry board; make a basin where you will go to put the yolks, icing sugar and salt.
3. Knead everything (as little as possible so as not to develop too much gluten and make the dough less shortcrust) until you get a smooth and homogeneous dough, which you will flatten forming a stick and cover with plastic wrap.
4. Let it rest for at least half an hour in the refrigerator. For the custard, dedicate to the preparation of the custard, pouring the milk, the yolks and the sugar into a saucepan. Mix with a whisk, then add the sifted corn starch and the inner seeds of a vanilla bean. Light the fire and stir until density is reached.
5. Cover the cream with plastic wrap that you will rest directly on it. Take the shortcrust pastry and work 2/3 with a rolling pin until you get a sheet of ½ cm thick.
6. Take a 23 cm diameter cake tin with high sides, butter it, flour it and line it with the pastry. Remove the excess pasta by cutting it off with a small knife, then prick the pastry with the prongs of a fork but without drilling it all the way and pour the custard into it.
7. Roll out the remaining shortcrust pastry into a sheet with which you will cover the cake; cut the excess pasta and seal the edges by pressing them lightly with the prongs of a fork.
8. With your fingers form a decoration by pinching the dough to form a wavy edge and then pierce it and brush the surface of the grandmother’s cake with beaten egg.
9. Sprinkle with abundant pine nuts and bake the grandmother’s cake in a static oven at 175 ° for 50 minutes.
10. When you take it out of the oven, let it cool completely, take it out of the mold then place it on a serving plate and sprinkle it with icing sugar.
Sources:
Main Photo and Recipe by [Sonia Peronaci]
