Torta della Nonna

Torta della Nonna, or Oma's Cake, is a classic of the Italian pastry tradition. It is simple crust filled with a vanilla rich custard.

I probably bake Torta della Nonna every couple of weeks because it is my boyfriend's favourite and there is a simple reason why: is decadently delicious. There are butter, eggs, vanilla and sugar, definately is not a light dessert.

There is a bit more work involved in its preparation in comparison to a one-bowl cake, zou have to prepare the crust, the custard and both need resting time; for this I think it is a perfect dessert to prepare in the weekend, when we have more time for ourselves and we are looking for a special treat.

Ingredients for a 24 cm pie

Crust

300g Flour

150g Butter

150g Caster Sugar

1 Egg

1 pinch of Salt

30g Pine Nuts (for decorations)

One Lemon Zest

Custard

300ml Milk

40g Sugar

25g Flour

3 Egg Yolks

1 Vanilla Bean

1 piece of Lemon Peel

Method

Crust

1. Mix in a bowl the butter at room temperature, egg, lemon zest and sugar together. Very quickly, you don't need to mix it perfectly.

2. Add the flour and the pinch of salt and mix until a dough is formed.

3. Transfer the dough in the fridge to rest for at least one hour.

Custard

1. Cut the vanilla bean in the middle lenght-wise, so that the internal seeds are exposed

2. Heat up the milk, the piece of lemon peel and the vanilla bean in a saucepan on the stove. Bring it to a boil, turn off and then let it rest for 20 min. Remove the lemon peel.

3. In another saucepan work the egg yolks with the sugar and the flour, then add slowly the milk we have prepared in step 2. Mix it well.

4. Move the saucepan on the stove and bring it to a boil slowly. Keep mixing the mixture to avoid it to attach to the bottom of the pan. After approximately 30sec from the boiling time the custard should have become more dense. Remove the saucepan from the heat.

Pie

1. Take the crust dough we have prepared before from the fridge, divide in in two parts, one slightly smaller than the other.

2. Flatten both pieces into two disc according to the dimension of your baking dish. The disc used for the bottom part of the pie should be thick around 5 mm while the upper one should be thinner, 2 or 3 mm.

3. Line the baking dish with the lower disc, be careful to let it adhere well to it.

4. Add the custard

5. Cover with the upper disc

6. Brush the top with some milk and add the pine nuts

7. Bake the pie in a pre-heated oven at 170°C for 40min

8. Enjoy

Ciao

Chiara