I wanted to try making a classic pastiera, instead… I ended up making a crumb tart similar to pastiera which certainly isn’t a traditional recipe, but it passed our taste test with flying colors yesterday. And the “oops, it’s already gone” test this morning at breakfast. 😀

Yes, that had to be said.
Like “what?”.
That I would take a traditional pastiera recipe by hand and manage not to change it, not to personalize it and, above all, not to turn it into a light version. That’s what.

Actually I do have a traditional recipe.
My friend Carmela gave it to me years ago. Her pastiera is famous; it never misses her daughter’s birthday parties—my daughter and her daughter have been friends since preschool. But I just can’t do it. Her recipe calls for an enormous number of eggs!!
I even checked the recipe printed on the jar of cooked wheat I bought: there too!! 😯 Six yolks (yes, six yolks!) and 500 grams of sugar just for the filling!!
Nope, I just can’t! 😀

So I started my preparation.
First of all I made my classic shortcrust pastry (this one) which contains only one egg and 80 grams of butter. And since the amount of cooked wheat in the jar would definitely have been too much for my standard dough piece, I increased the flour to obtain a larger ball. But I left everything else unchanged.
Ah ah! I can already hear your comments! “What? You increase the flour and don’t increase the rest? Ah ah!” No.
Well, anyway, despite all my tweaks and “lightenings” I assure you my crumb tart similar to pastiera is pretty good, both to look at and, I assure you, to eat!

So, if you trust me… follow this recipe! 😉

〰〰〰

Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Economical
Rest time: 1 Day 30 Minutes
Preparation time: 1 Hour
Cooking time: 35 Minutes
Portions: 8
Cooking methods: Oven
Cuisine: Italian
Seasonality: Easter, All seasons

Ingredients

👉 Small note: the filling made with one jar of cooked wheat is enough for two desserts, so if you want to use it all at once you will need to make 2 dough balls by doubling the shortcrust quantities (or, conversely, to make a single tart you should use half the filling).

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
6 tbsp butter
Half packet baking powder (about 2 tsp)
1 tbsp orange sugar syrup
3 1/4 cups cooked wheat (1 jar)
1 cup milk (I used 1/2 cup milk + 1/2 cup water)
1/2 cup candied orange peel
3/4 cup ricotta
1 egg
1/4 cup sugar (+ 1 tbsp for the surface)
1 packet vanillin
ground cinnamon
2 tsp cornstarch (optional)

Tools

Saucepan
Springform pan

Steps

Proceed as explained in the recipe for my classic shortcrust pastry.
The only two differences are:
1) add one tablespoon of caramelized syrup (that is, the residue from boiling the candied orange peels)
👉 Anyone who has candied orange peel at home even once (here is my first recipe and here the second with cinnamon) knows that the last step is boiling the peels in a sugar-and-water syrup. When that boiling is finished, I always have a fragrant sugary residue at the bottom of the pot. Why throw it away? Never. So I put it into the dough. It can easily be substituted with some orange juice, or with a tablespoon of sugar water plus grated orange zest or dried powdered zest. I might even dare to suggest using caramel, but I’ll stop at these possible substitutions. If you have other ideas they are welcome, 🙂 but don’t dismiss making candied peels a priori—try them and you won’t regret it, my word.
2) a larger amount of flour (and the use of 100 grams of brown sugar instead of 80 grams of granulated sugar).
👉 Regarding the larger amount of flour, this of course made a slightly less compact dough. If the dough is hard to work, add one or two tablespoons of water or orange juice.
Once you have the dough ball, put it in the fridge to rest.
Meanwhile, prepare the filling.
Boil the cooked wheat with the 1 cup of milk+water mixture, the 1/2 cup candied orange peel and a pinch of cinnamon.
Boil for about 10 minutes over medium heat until most of the liquid is absorbed. Although in my case the mixture stayed relatively soft.
Transfer it to a bowl and let it cool slightly.
Add the ricotta and mix well.
Beat the whole egg with the sugar (I used brown sugar both in the filling and in the pastry, and I had also used it to make the candied peels especially for this recipe). Pour the egg and sugar into the mixture.
Mix well with a spoon, add the remaining candied peel (or even more), another pinch of cinnamon and a packet of vanillin.
Since after adding the beaten egg my mixture softened, I thought of adding a couple of teaspoons of cornstarch.
☝ I believe, now that I have eaten the cake, that it wasn’t indispensable. After baking and resting, I am sure the filling firms up even without the starch. But I used it, so it is part of the ingredients.
Line a springform pan (diameter 9.5 in) with parchment paper.
Crumble the pastry with your hands over the bottom of the pan and press the crumbs together with your hands until you obtain a compact bottom with no holes.
Using small amounts of dough at a time, build the edge by pressing the dough onto the pan sides.
👉 Be careful not to use all the dough; leave about 150 grams because it will be needed for the crumbly topping.
Once you have the shortcrust “shell”, fill it with half of the wheat-and-ricotta filling.
Level it with the back of a spoon.
Crumble the remaining 150 grams of pastry in a bowl, add 1 tablespoon of brown sugar and a pinch of cinnamon to the crumbs.
Distribute the crumbs over the filling.
Bake at 428°F. After about ten minutes lower to 392°F, bake for a total of 30-35 minutes. If the shortcrust browns too quickly, lower to 356°F. It’s important that the filling, which is quite moist, can cook without the pastry darkening too much. In any case, adjust the temperature according to your oven.
After baking I released the springform edge and left the crumb tart similar to pastiera to cool inside the turned-off oven.
I let it rest until the next day. Typical tarts, and I believe even the real pastiera, are usually better the day after, so I didn’t want to risk cutting it too soon. Of course, it was hard to resist tasting it, especially for my children! 😀
I wish you a Happy Easter and I’ll see you in the next (post-Easter) recipe.
Oh! Remember that if you want to make two crumb tarts you only have to double the shortcrust quantities and use all the filling. If you want to make just one like I did… what do you think you will do with the remaining filling? If you want to know how I used mine… click here!!! You’ll discover a nice little recipe! 😉💪😋