NEAPOLITAN CURLY SFOGLIATELLE 

Curly sfogliatelle are a typical dessert of the Neapolitan pastry tradition. If we want to enjoy a good homemade curly sfogliatella we must arm ourselves with patience, layers of puff pastry stuffed with ricotta cream, semolina and candied oranges, one of the Neapolitan desserts that I love most of all together with babà and the legendary Neapolitan pastry.

Making homemade curly sfogliatelle is simple, even if there are rest times to be respected and obviously the right ingredients, if you have the pasta machine you should prepare the dough with that, otherwise go with the rolling pin and I tell you will get muscles, but it's worth it to taste the Neapolitan sfogliatella made with your own hands!

Let's see how to make Neapolitan curly sfogliatelle!

And if you try them let me know...

INGREDIENTS 

for the dough

250 g flour 

70 g lard

100 g water

Half a tablespoon of honey

1 pinch of salt

For the filling

200 g milk

100 g semolina

200 g ricotta cheese

125 g sugar

candied orange to taste

1 egg yolk

Preparation

For the dough

In a bowl pour the flour, salt, honey and water. Start working until you get a grainy dough. Continue to work until it forms a ball, then grease it with lard, wrap it in a cloth and let it rest for 30 minutes. After the rest time, take the dough of curly sfogliatelle and knead it again, do not be afraid if initially it will seem very hard, with the warmth of the hands it will become nice workable. Keep working, form the ball again and sprinkle it again with lard. Wrap it in plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for 2 hours. After the rest time, remove the dough from the refrigerator and let it soften for about 20-30 minutes then start rolling it out with a rolling pin until it forms a rectangle. If you have a pasta machine, use it to pass your dough in order to get it thinner. You will have to get a very long sheet Take the dough and roll it up on a rolling pin, greasing it abundantly with lard at each turn, then let it rest in the refrigerator for a few hours, even better if all night.

The filling

Pour the milk into a pot and let it heat. Now add the semolina and cook for a few minutes, stirring constantly. Remove it from heat and let it cool. In a bowl work the ricotta with candied orange, sugar and yolk and stir until everything is well mixed. Add the cold semolina to the ricotta cream, stir, cover with plastic wrap and put the filling of the Neapolitan sfogliatelle in the refrigerator.

How to make curly sfogliatelle

Take the roll back and unroll it gently and cut slices 1 cm thick. With your hands, form a space in the center so as to contain the filling. Fill them with plenty of filling, because the curly sfogliatelle must be well swollen and close the flaps well. Put them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake in a static oven at 180 C degrees for about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven the Neapolitan curly sfogliatelle and sprinkle with icing sugar before enjoying them.

TIPS

You can also add custard to the ricotta filling. You can also flavor ricotta with candied citron or orange peel.

PRESERVATION

The Neapolitan curly sfogliatelle keep in the fridge for a couple of days, you can freeze them and store them in the freezer for about 2 months.