Looking for Torta della Nonna Recipe

[petitgourmet]

A few years ago I was living in Italy in the city of Siena. There was a bakery there that sold a wonderful torta they called Torta della Nonna or Grandmother's cake. It was a very simple, firm custard cake with toasted pine nuts on the top. Does anyone out there have a recipe they can recommend for something like that? I have been craving it forever. I have checked numerous Italian bakeries, but you wouldn't believe the amount of different types of cakes called torta della nonna.

Can anyone help?

[foodpump]

Recipie I have is a sweet dough made with brown sugar, egg yolks, orange zest, and grand marnier. This is rolled out in a round disc, and a pastry cream enriched with orange and lemon peel, marischino cherries, and grand marnier is piped on top. A "lid" of th same dough is laid ontop , the edges eggwashed and glued down so it resembles a frisbee. Top is eggwashed and scattered with flaked almonds, and the whole thing baked.

[felixe the dog]

Where is Siduri???

[siduri]

Huh? Wazzat? Did i hear someone call my name?
Well, here i come, even as you guys over there sleep, since it's morning here.
Torta della nonna, yes, of course there will be millions of recipes, especially since nonne (grandmothers) are abundant in italy (did you know that italy has the longest life expectancy for women??? Why do you think I moved here?).
Anyway, I'm afraid i really don;t like italian deserts (horrors! will i be banished for saying this?) because they taste of nothing much, are usually dry, soaked with liqueur, or incredibly sweet. There are a couple of good ones, you can;t beat tiramisu done well, and there are a few "imported" to italy due to the numerous invaders who just came in and took over (french in naples, austrians in northern italy for instance) who left their brioches and babas and monte biancos and krapfen and strudel, but much as i love deserts, i rarely get one in rome, and then i am usually disappointed. Even kids' birthday cakes, ordered at the pastry shop, are full of this horrendous "rosolio" liqueur. You can;t taste anything else.
But, if you must, i will find a torta della nonna recipe, with cream and pine nuts, which is also apparently the same nonna who makes it for roman pasty shops!
Sorry this will be in grams and someone please do the math because i am not capable
For the pasta frolla (crust) (don't expect this to be good like a brisee, it's dry and crumbly and i avoid all cakes with pasta frolla, but go ahead if you like it)
80 grams flour
30 grams sugar
60 grams butter
1 egg yolk
a pinch of baking powder
Prepare the pasta frolla, by making a pile of flour on the pastry board, making a hole in it (the "well") and adding the rest of the ingredients inside, gradually mixing them in. Is the butter supposed to be melted? don't know. Is it supposed to be soft? don;t know. Is it supposed to be cut into the dough cold, most probably not. This is probably why most cakes are so lousy, nobody bothers to tell you how to make them (have you detected a tinge of cynicism yet?)
Work these ingredients together quickly with your fingers and then kind of knead it briefly. Cover in plastic and refrigerate at least 30 minutes)
Make two disks of dough about 20 cm diameter. It doesn;t tell you to put one of these dough disks in a low pan like a quiche pan, but i presume that would be the procedure. fill it with creme anglais (below) then cover with the second disk and squeeze together the edges to seal it. scatter 20 grams of pinoli (pine nuts) on top. bake at 180 (i think that's 350 C) for 20 minutes. Cool and then dust with powdered sugar.
It calls for 50 grams of creme anglais, but it then refers you to another recipe which seems to me at least, will make a lot more than 50 grams worth. Your guess being as good as mine.
creme anglais.
3 egg yolks
3 tablespoins sugar (80 gm)
3 deciliters milk, heated to boiling
the rind of half a lemon heated in the milk
20 gm butter
Beat eggs and sugar with a whisk till thick and the sugar is no longer granular. add the boiling milk and lemon peel a little at a time, cook on low heat mixing constantly until it thickens, but don;t boil. It has to get so thick it sort of adheres to the spoon. (This is a rough translation, not clear if it should coat the spoon or actually be so thick it would mound on the spoon)
Remove from heat and add butter. Remove the piece of lemon rind.

[siduri]

Originally Posted by foodpump

Recipie I have is a sweet dough made with brown sugar, egg yolks, orange zest, and grand marnier. This is rolled out in a round disc, and a pastry cream enriched with orange and lemon peel, marischino cherries, and grand marnier is piped on top. A "lid" of th same dough is laid ontop , the edges eggwashed and glued down so it resembles a frisbee. Top is eggwashed and scattered with flaked almonds, and the whole thing baked.

Hi food pump,
i've never seen grand marnier used here (though i might just not have seen it), and especially i know of no grandmotehrs who would ever even have heard of it! (though i suppose maybe in the far north or something - or it could be actually an interpretation of a sicilian version with some sicilian orange liqueur?) And except for a few modern health food type recipes, i've never encountered brown sugar in any italian dish. I'm curious where you found it. Was it actually called "torta della nonna"? Is there not any butter in the dough? It sounds very close in many ways to the one described by petitgourmet and that i know of - interesting how recipes get around and vary, like dialects i guess.
Living in rome certainly doesn;t give me much knowledge of the highly regional cooking you find in the rest of the country.

[foodpump]

I first made it in Zurich, recipe from an Austrian Chef who spend a good deal of time in Italy. Of course there's butter in the dough, as well as orange zest and egg yolks, very rich dough.
Never said I invented it or even understand it, but it was part of the mise en place that I had to do for the daily dessert wagon

[panini]

Siduri,
Are you sure you're in Italy? Ok, Tell me you don't eat ice cream or ices either. You are supposed to be our Italian connection! Whazzzup
I'm wondering if you have children? Those cakes loaded with liqueures for a reason, to get the old farts anf kiddos in bed early

[petitgourmet]

Thanks for the recipe. This sounds exactly like what I've had before in Tuscany. I will concede that most Italian desserts are terrible, but what about the gelato? You can't beat that! Tiramisu made well is also delicious (but then we agree on that)! I'll convert the recipe to standard and give it a try. I'll let you know the results! Again, grazie!

[siduri]

Originally Posted by panini

Siduri,
Are you sure you're in Italy? Ok, Tell me you don't eat ice cream or ices either. You are supposed to be our Italian connection! Whazzzup
I'm wondering if you have children? Those cakes loaded with liqueures for a reason, to get the old farts anf kiddos in bed early

Yeah, last time i looked it was italy, that's why my hot water will run out before the shower is finished, the washing machine will only take two sheets and a towel and i almost get killed every time i try to cross the street!
I do eat ice cream here, and some of it is wonderful, but while i like italian chocolate gelato, partly because they never overfreeze it, (it';s always somewhat soft) and it's very dark and chocolatey, still my favorite remains american style coffee ice cream, because it contains cream (ice cream here is creamy intexture but not with cream)

Yes, i do have kids, and no kid i know will eat one of those cakes, so no getting them to bed early ! (they go to bed really late here, by the way, you see them out at all hours- they take naps during the day i guess). I actually don;t know anyone who actually likes those liqueurs like rosolio or alchermes, but the pasticcerie continue to add them, unperturbed. Most italian kids shun the cake and go for the salty stuff anyway.

To give you an idea of the cake situation here, the pastry stores tell you they can;t not put liqueur in the cake because otherwise it would be too dry - meaning they don;t know how to make a moist cake. Most home made cakes are so dry they are eaten only by dipping in coffee or wine. (Home baking is worse than pastry baking.) Finally, any normal simple american cake is considered a real delicacy (take brownies - they all think they're so "refined" - like some haute cuisine thing).
Don;t get me wrong, italian food is very good. Just not the deserts.

[siduri]

Originally Posted by foodpump

I first made it in Zurich, recipe from an Austrian Chef who spend a good deal of time in Italy. Of course there's butter in the dough, as well as orange zest and egg yolks, very rich dough.
Never said I invented it or even understand it, but it was part of the mise en place that I had to do for the daily dessert wagon

interesting, an austrian-swiss variation on the traditional torta della nonna.