Sicily is the epitome of bakery as an art expression: cannoli, cassata, almond pastries are the results of ancient mingling that have now defined the Sicilian cuisine as one among the richest when talking about sweet food pleasures.
Extra virgin olive oil is often a part of the bakery tradition as an element which can soften the consistency of a dough or a pie. Beyond the diverse fillings, olive oil can be considered as a healthy substitution of butter.
Pies are a classic of made in Italy bakery. A cake suitable for every occasion which it is characterized by the strips of shortcrust pastry kneaded on the filling: fruit, chocolate, marmalade, custard.
Traditional cuisine requires the use of butter for all sweet preparations, while in the last years, due to a greater focus on health, many variants are put forward.
Butter, therefore, is often replaced by different kind of oils, which range from peanut oil to sunflower seed oil to extra virgin olive oil, certainly the healthier even regarding the energy intake. In fact, butter is an animal fat, thus it contains a high quantity of saturated fats; the exact contrary of extra virgin olive oil, which stands out for the majority of unsaturated fats good for the health, acting on preventing heart diseases and skin ageing.
All things considered, we suggest you a very easy recipe to bake a soft pie with favola olive oil, following the traditional recipe of our grandmothers, but with a change that makes this dessert healthy, light but tasty.
Using our favola oil instead of butter, you will have a softer pie, since butter is what makes pies and cakes crumbly and perfect when slicing. In addition, shortcrust pastry prepared with extravirgin olive oil does not require any resting time in the fridge, therefore you can bake excellent desserts in few minutes for your children and loved ones.
INGREDIENTS:
– 300 g flour
– 100 g sugar
– 1 egg
– 1 egg yolk
– 80 g extra virgin olive oil* favola Moresca
– 1 teaspoon baking powder
– 1 lemon grated skin
– a pinch of salt
*For this recipe we suggest you use our favola Moresca, a gentle extra virgin olive oil with a light fruity.
RECIPE:
Put the flour on a wooden surface and shape it as a fountain, then add in the middle oil, sugar, egg, yolk, baking powder, lemon skin finely grated.
Start mixing the ingredients: at the beginning the dough will be sandy, but while working it will become more dense.
The mixture is ready when you have a smooth and compact dough, which no longer sticks to your hands.
The shortcrust pastry is ready for the use: roll it on a flat surface and then cover a baking tray, leaving some little pieces aside to cut some stripes.
You can fill the pie as you desire: marmalade, nutella, custard, chocolate. We suggest you to fill it following your tastes, and then cut little stripes from the shortcrust pastry, place them oblique, creating well-aligned rhombus, before putting it in a pre-heated oven at 180°C for 25 minutes.
When the pie is ready, let it cold and then serve it sprinkling with some powdered sugar, if you desire. You will notice that, thanks to the extravirgin olive oil, the pie will be softer and tastier, while maintaining at the same time a light consistency.
