Cornetti
Soft Italian breakfast crescents of sweet enriched dough, risen twice and baked for 20 minutes until golden.
Photograph credit: Cornetti filled with lemon custard at cafe in Naples, Italy by Philip Mallis · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Flickr · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
How to Cook Cornetti
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Mix the flour, sugar, yeast and salt. Add the 2 eggs, milk, butter, zests and vanilla and knead for 10 minutes until smooth.
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Cover and leave to rise for 2 hours until doubled.
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Divide in two and roll each into a circle 3 mm thick. Cut each into 6 triangles and roll up from the wide end. Curve into crescents on two lined trays.
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Leave to rise for 45 minutes. Heat the oven to 190°C / 375°F.
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Brush with the beaten egg and bake for 20 minutes until deep gold.
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Warm the jam and brush it over the cornetti while hot.
What Can Go Wrong
- Knead until smooth and elastic.
- Tuck the tip under the cornetto so it does not unroll.
- Brush with warm jam for a glossy finish.
The Short Version
A Sunday morning for a house of twelve: the smell of warm yeast and orange peel at 7am, and a tray of golden crescents. Cornetti are the Italian breakfast pastry, softer and sweeter than a French croissant and made from a plain enriched dough rather than a laminated one.
The dough has eggs, butter, milk and a little sugar, and it is flavoured with orange and lemon zest and vanilla. Knead it until smooth and elastic, which takes about 10 minutes, then leave it to rise for 2 hours until doubled. Roll the dough into a long triangle and roll it up from the wide end, with the tip tucked under the cornetto. Curve the ends round to make the crescent.
Leave the shaped cornetti to rise on the tray for 45 minutes, brush with egg and bake at 190°C / 375°F for 20 minutes, until deep gold. They are best warm, with jam or cream inside, and with a cappuccino. Brush them with warm apricot jam for a glossy finish.
To Go With It
Cappuccino · Jam · Custard
Storing Leftovers
Best the day they are made. Freeze for 1 month.
Quick Answers
How long does Cornetti take to make?
1 hour of preparation and 20 minutes of cooking, plus 2 hours 45 minutes of Rising, so allow 4 hours 5 minutes from start to finish. The recipe serves 12.
Nutrition per Serving
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked.
First published ; last changed .
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