Their half-moon shape reminds of fresh pasta ravioli, but raviole, at the female, are dry biscuits typical of Bologna.
Today, instead of the traditional ones, filled with mostarda Bolognese, I preferred St. Joseph’s cookies with pastry cream.
St. Joseph’s cookies.
On the blog, also find the more traditional recipe for raviole, the biscuits made on the occasion of St Joseph’s Day and which, over time, the bakeries of Bologna have begun to make all year round.
It is a crisp, thin shortcrust pastry that holds a filling.
Usually, mustard or jam, but also custard or chocolate, depending on the mood and occasion.
The variable of time.
To make these biscuits, you have to make shortcrust pastry and pastry cream.
Make the dough first and, while it is resting, the custard.
During the rest time of the dough, pastry cream has to cool before being used as a filling (during this time, you can roll the shortcrust pastry and let it rest again in the refrigerator or even in the freezer).
Talk about time and cooking.
If you’ve been frequenting my blog for a while, you already know that I don’t indicate how long it takes to make a recipe.
Even if it is always possible to offer an approximate cooking time, over the years, I realized that what I do in an hour, such as St. Joseph’s cookies with pastry cream, can require different timing depending on the person.
Take your time.
In addition to experience and knowledge of a dish and how to make it, not having the right tool, for example, can also lengthen the process.
For instance, it will not be the same thing if you knead by hand or with a planetary.
The time to make a recipe also depends on our mood.
If we have time, we will probably go into the kitchen without haste and work enjoying the light coming in through the window, focusing on the ingredients and reading the recipe text with care and attention. This may take us longer than is strictly necessary.
On the contrary, if what we have to make is a quick meal in a very busy day, we will choose to cook something that we know well or that we have already checked and considered suitable for that moment.
So why specify a cooking time? Everyone has their own.
In the kitchen and life, follow your rhythm and you won’t go wrong.
Buona cucina, Monica
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Food tip.
On the blog you find the basic recipe for making pastry cream, tricks to make it perfect and how to turn it into diplomatic cream.
St. Joseph’s Cookies With Pastry Cream
for about 36 biscuits
round biscuit cutter 3-4cm
Ingredients
shortcrust pastry
wheat flour, 350g
cold butter, 170g
caster or brown sugar, 100g
eggs, 2
baking powder, 5g
milk, two to three tablespoons
salt, a pinch
grated rind of half a natural lemon
for the pastry cream
caster sugar, 50 g
flour, 25 g
yolks, 2
milk, 250 ml
natural vanilla extract, 1 tsp.
Directions
In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.
Then add butter pieces, lemon zest, vanilla essence, milk and start to knead quickly.
When the mixture is firm and well blended, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for about two hours.
While the dough is resting, make the pastry cream.
In a saucepan but not on the heat, mix egg yolks and sugar with a hand whisk.
Add the sifted flour stirring with the whisk and then slowly, always stirring, pour into the mixture the milk – warm or room temperature never boiling hot.
Put the pan on a low heat and, stirring constantly with a hand whisk, bring the cream to the right consistency.
When you encounter resistance while stirring and you see that it begins to detach from the sides of the pan, remove from the heat and leave to cool covering the cream with cling film in contact with the surface of the cream or spreading a little butter on the hot cream, in this way the unpleasant film of the cream will not form.
Leave to cool completely.
Prendi la frolla dal frigorifero, taglia in 2 o 3 parti e stendi con il matterello un pezzo alla volta posizionando ogni pezzo tra due fogli di carta forno.
The dough should be rolled very thin and if you find it difficult to separate it from the sheets of baking paper, use the biscuit cutter to make the bases of the cookies and place all, paper and dough, in the freezer for a few minutes. This will make it easier to work with the leftover dough.
Before filling, gently spread the dough of each biscuit with your hands, if possible, without breaking the dough, fill with the equivalent of a generous teaspoon of pastry cream, close the biscuit on itself and pinch the edges so that the filling does not escape during cooking.
Using a brush, wet the surface of the raviole with a little water and place each biscuit on a plate where you have put sugar grains to decorate.
Place the cookies in the fridge for about 30-40 minutes before baking in a preheated oven at 180°C (static function) for about 12 minutes or until the biscuits are lightly browned.
Bake and leave to cool. Store in a tin.
