Torta della Nonna / “Grandmother’s Cake” – A Custard Filled Pie with Pine Nuts
The measurements of the ingredients below are given to snuggly fill with custard a baking tin with borders of 4 cm in height (23-24cm in diameter).
If you are using a shallower baking tin spring form or just wish to have less of the custard filling, prepare it with 500 ml of milk and dial down the rest of the ingredients accordingly.
For the frolla /pastry:
- 250 g of plain flour, sifted
- 140 g of cold butter, diced
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- a pinch of salt
- some grated lemon zest (optional)
For the custard:
- 750 ml of milk
- 6 egg yolks
- 90 g of flour (you can use a little bit less depending on the consistency you want to achieve), sifted
- lemon zests from half a lemon (organic)
- use 3/4 or a whole vanilla pod, seeds scraped out
- 140-150 g of sugar
- a pinch of salt
To finish:
- about 30 g of pine nuts
- icing sugar
Start with preparing the pastry:
Combine the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl, rub the butter into the flour using your fingertips until you achieve a crumbly texture. Add the egg and the egg yolk (also the lemon zest if using) and knead for a few seconds or until the dough comes together.
Divide the dough into two parts: roughly cut off one third of the dough. Flatten slightly both parts of the dough, wrap them in cling film and leave in the fridge for 40-60 minutes to rest.
Prepare the custard:
Pour the milk into a saucepan, add the squeezed in your fingers lemon zests and the vanilla beans. Stir and set on a low/medium heat and let it simmer.
Place the egg yolks in a glass bowl and add the sugar. Whisk until pale and then add the flour and the pinch of salt, whisk everything again until well combined.
Once the milk starts to come just to the soft boil, take it off the heat. Pour just a little bit of it over the custard base and whisk vigorously. Pour in a bit more and whisk again.Repeat until you’ve poured the whole milk (pouring the milk all at once will start cooking the eggs).
Pour the milky egg mixture (don’t try to discard the lemon zests at this point) back into the sauce pan and set over a low heat, stirring with a whisk all the while.
Once it starts to thicken find and discard the lemon zests. Wait until the custard has turned thick and you can see it releasing first bubbles. Cook it for a further minute to make sure that the flour is cooked through and the custard feels smooth when you taste it.
Pour the custard into a clean glass bowl, cover the surface with cling film (pressing it gently to the custard) to prevent forming a thick skin. Let it cool down to a room temperature – to speed the process up set the bowl with the custard over an ice bath.
Grease a spring form tin 23-24 cm in diameter with some butter.
Preheat the oven to 180 C/ static.
Take the pastry out the fridge.
Roll out on a floured surface the larger part of the dough to the size large enough to cover the bottom and the sides of the tin. Flip it onto the tin, press it with your fingertips to the bottom and the sides of the springform tin, prick the bottom part with a fork. Cut off any overhanging pastry.
Fill the pastry shell with the custard and even out the surface.
Roll out the remaining pastry to the size of a circle large enough to cover the top of the tart completely. Place it on top of the tart, press the edges and cut off any excess of the pastry.
Scatter the surface with the pine nuts gently pressing them down.
Bake in the preheated oven for 45-50 min.
If the top of the pie is browning too quickly, cover it loosely with a sheet of aluminium foil.
Once the Torta della Nonna is baked, leave it in the oven to rest with the doors left ajar/ half-open.
Decorate with a generous covering of the icing sugar moments before serving.
