Christms Tart Recipe (Crostata di Natale) is one of the many Italian traditional desserts found in Sweet Maria's Italian Desserts by Maria Bruscino Shanchez . Pasta Frolla (sweet dough) filled with cranberries and walnuts with the added flavour of lemon makes a perfect Christmas dessert. Maria is the owner of the popular Sweet Maria’s Bakery located in Connecticut where she and her family bake delicious Italian desserts for all occasions.
Christmas Tart Recipe - Crostata di Natale
Ingredients:
- 1 recipe pasta frolla (recipe follows)
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- ¼ cup water
- ½ cup corn syrup
- juice and rind of 1 lemon
- 1 cup large walnut pieces
- 4 cups cranberries
- 4 tbsps butter
How to Make the Christmas Tart
- In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch, water, corn syrup juice and juice and rind of lemon. Heat over medium heat until boiling. Add walnuts and cranberries. Cook until cranberries pop, about 4 minutes.
- Remove from the heat. Stir in butter. Let cool.
- Preheat oven to 350° F.
- Roll out chilled pasta frolla on lightly floured surface until about 1/8 inch thick. Line the bottom of a 9-inch tart pan with half of the dough. Pour cooled cranberry filling into crust.
- Use a fluted pastry cutter to cut ½-inch strips of remaining dough. Arrange strips in lattice fashion on top of the filling. Pinch edges to seal top lattice crust to bottom crust.
- Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until crust is golden brown.
- Remove tart from the oven. Let cool on wire cooling rack. When completely cool, remove tart from pan.
- Serve plain or with ice cream or whipped cream.
- Yield: One 9-inch tart, about 12 servings.
Pasta Frolla Recipe
(Tender Pie Dough)
Ingredients:
- 2 cups flour
- 2/3 cup sugar
- pinch of salt
- 1 ½ sticks (6 oz.) butter, chilled
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsp cold water
How to Make Pasta Frolla
(Tender Pie Dough)
- Combine flour, sugar and salt in bowl of food processor fitted with metal blade. Pulse in butter until well blended into dry ingredients.
- Add egg and water and pulse until blended.
- Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until well blended.
- Separate dough in half. Wrap each half in plastic wrap and refrigerate from 2 to 3 hours or overnight.
- Yield: Two 9-inch tart or pie crusts.
Holiday Gift-Giving Recipe Suggestions
Fig and Walnut Biscotti (from Sweet Maria's Italian Desserts)Cranberry Almond Lemon Biscotti
Christmas Tart Recipe from Sweet Martia's Italian Desserts, by Maria Bruscino Sanchez.. Copyright © 2008 by the author and reprinted by permission of St. Martin’s Press, LLC.
- Sweet Maria's Italian Desserts
- Softcover,159 pages
- Publisher: St. Martin’s Press, LLC
- ISBN 0-312-24133-X 51495
- Author: Maria Bruscino Sanchez
- Price: $14.95US/$22.99CAN
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