Lottie Lomme
De crostata semplice is definitely the most commonly made cake in Italy. It is very simple, anyone can make it. It is tasty and you can easily adjust it to your own taste.
De pie is a basic mold that is also used to make other cakes. The dough that is used is shortbread called. Once you have mastered these, it will also become easier and simpler to make other Italian cakes. Since Italians have a sweet tooth at breakfast, you will often find this cake there as well. On the breakfast table!
Ingredients
- 300 grams of flour
- 125 grams of sugar
- 175 grams of butter
- the zest of a lemon peel
- 1 egg and 1 yolk (the egg yolk)
- pinch of salt
The filling (farcitura)
Jam to your own taste. Use fig jam to give it an Italian twist. You can also make a Nutella crostata. Then you use the well-known hazelnut spread instead of jam.
Preparation of the crostata semplice
Mix the flour with the butter (first) and then the sugar. This can be done in the food processor or by hand. Then add the egg yolks, the pinch of salt and the zest of the lemon zest. Knead the dough into a nice ball, wrap in foil and put it in the fridge for half an hour.
Stretch a baking paper on your cake tin.
After half an hour, sprinkle some flour on your work surface. Use a rolling pin to roll out two-thirds of the dough into a large round flat surface that you can use to cover your pie dish. Make a small raised edge on the sides.
Now put jam or Nutella on the dough. Half a jar of jam or a little more than half is usually sufficient.
You have one third of the dough left. You also roll this out with the rolling pin into an elongated flat strip. You can easily make strips of this with a potato knife, which you can then lay over the jam as a grid. If you go between the dough and the worktop with a potato knife, the strip will come off easily and it will remain a nice strip.
You can also use a mold to make hearts or stars for the crostata. The dough is very suitable for this.
Your cake is now ready and can be placed in the oven at 180 degrees for half an hour, after you have preheated it.
Enjoy your meal.
Photos: Lotje Lomme
The crostata semplice with Nutella is really one of my favorites when I'm in Italy. What size shape are you using here?
No idea which one is available. If the size is larger, roll out the dough thinner 🙂