Italian · Desserts

Sfogliatella Riccia

A shell of a hundred paper-thin leaves around a semolina and ricotta filling. The hardest pastry in Naples and worth every hour of it.

1 hr 40 min prep and cooking plus 12 hr 20 min chilling the rolled dough log 14 hr start to finish Serves 10 servings Hard
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Sfogliatella Riccia

Photograph credit: Sfogliatella riccia napoletana by Saggittarius A · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence

What to Put on the Table With Sfogliatella Riccia

  • Espresso
  • More espresso
  • Nothing else at all

How to Make Sfogliatella Riccia

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  1. Work the flour, water, honey and salt to a very stiff dough, then knead 12 minutes until it is smooth. Wrap and rest it 20 minutes.

  2. Roll the dough through a pasta machine, or by hand, into one long sheet thin enough to read newsprint through.

  3. Spread the softened butter over the whole sheet in a thin even film, right to the edges.

  4. Roll the sheet up into a tight log about 6 cm across, pulling it taut as you go so no air is trapped.

  5. Wrap the log tightly and refrigerate 12 hours.

  6. For the filling, bring the milk, water and salt to the boil, rain in the semolina and cook 4 minutes, stirring, until very thick. Spread it out to cool.

  7. Beat the cooled semolina with the ricotta, sugar, yolks, candied peel, cinnamon and vanilla until smooth.

  8. Cut the chilled log into 2 cm discs. Push the centre of each disc outwards with your thumbs to make a hollow cone.

  9. Fill each cone with the semolina mixture, pinch the open edge shut and set them on a lined tray.

  10. Bake at 190°C / 375°F fan / 210°C / 410°F / gas 6 for 30 minutes, until the leaves separate and the shells are deep gold.

  11. Dust heavily with icing sugar and eat warm.

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A Few Notes

Thin enough to read through, or there are no leaves.

Twelve hours in the fridge. A soft log cannot be cut into clean discs.

Push the cone out with your thumbs from the centre, not the edge.

Keeping What's Left

Best within two hours. Refrigerated 2 days and re-crisped in a hot oven.

Common Questions

How long does Sfogliatella Riccia take to make?

1 hour 10 minutes of preparation and 30 minutes of cooking, plus 12 hours 20 minutes of chilling the rolled dough log, so allow 14 hours from start to finish. The recipe serves 10.

The Numbers 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.

526Calories
11gProtein
71gCarbs
22gFat
2gFibre
22gSugar
390mgSodium

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Compiled by Turab

Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.

First published ; last changed .