Easy TORTA della NONNA Cake — The Best Grandma's Custard Pie Recipe!
Torta delle Nonna cake is a beloved Italian dessert with two layers of sweet pastry crust enveloping a luscious custard filling. The finishing touch? A sprinkling of pine nuts and a dusting of powdered sugar. It’s a taste of Italy that brings back warm memories of grandma’s kitchen.
Equipment
- 1 26 cm or 10-inch diameter baking dish
Ingredients
For the Pastry Crust:
- 450 g 00 flour or all-purpose flour
- 200 g butter cold from the fridge
- 160 g Sugar
- A pinch of salt
- Lemon zest of 1 organic lemon
- 2 Medium eggs
- Butter for greasing
For the Custard Filling:
- 4 egg yolks
- 100 g Sugar
- 50 g 00 flour or all-purpose flour
- 500 g milk
- Lemon zest of 1 organic lemon
For the Topping:
- Egg whites
- 25 g pine nuts
- Powdered sugar
Instructions
Prepare the Pastry Dough:
- Place flour and cold butter cut into pieces in a bowl. Use fingertips to “pinch” the butter, thoroughly mixing it with the flour.
- Add sugar, salt, grated lemon zest and eggs. Knead briefly to mix ingredients without overworking the dough, just enough to compact them and shape the pastry into a loaf.
- Gently flatten dough slightly and wrap in cling film, then refrigerate for at least 1 hour to firm up.
Make the Custard Filling:
- Pour egg yolks, sugar and flour into a saucepan and mix with a hand whisk until smooth and dense.
- Slowly stir in cold milk to avoid lumps forming.
- Add lemon zest and heat on the stove. Allow cream to thicken over moderate heat while stirring continuously with the whisk until thick and creamy. When it starts to thicken, remove lemon zest.
- Transfer cream to a bowl and mix for a few minutes to cool slightly, then cover with cling film and refrigerate for at least a couple of hours.
Assemble the Cake:
- Once short crust pastry and cream have cooled, assemble the cake.
- Preheat your oven to 160 °C (320 °F) static mode, and grease your baking dish with butter.
- Use three-quarters of pastry dough to create the base. Place in center of cake pan and spread with fingertips, pressing from center to edges. Press center with hands until about 5 mm thick.
- Use fingertips to ensure dough adheres well to edges, then trim excess with a knife. Prick base with fork tines and fill with now cold custard.
- Knead leftover short crust pastry again and roll out dough to a thickness of 2-3 mm on a sheet of baking paper.
- Roll pastry disk onto rolling pin and unroll onto mold to cover cream. Press edges with fingers to seal and roll over with rolling pin to eliminate excess.
- Brush surface with a little egg white and prick with fork tines, then sprinkle with pine nuts.
- Bake the cake in a preheated conventional oven at 160 °C (320 °F) for 50 minutes on the bottom shelf, then raise temperature to 180 °C (356 °F) and bake for another 10 minutes. If the surface darkens too much during baking, cover with aluminum foil.
- Once baked, remove from the oven and let the cake cool completely before removing it from the baking dish. Transfer the cooled cake to the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.
- Just before serving, dust the top generously with powdered sugar. Serve your delicious custard pie!