No Bake Torta Della Nonna Cake (No-Bake Grandma's Cake)
No Bake Torta della Nonna is a fresh and delicious dessert, a summer reinterpretation of the classic Torta della Nonna cake, made of shortcrust pastry and custard. In this recipe, however, there is no oven cooking, the shortcrust pastry is replaced with crushed biscuits and butter and inside there is a lemon-flavored custard. Pine nuts and icing sugar complete the surface of the cake.
Ingredients
For Pastry cream:
- 500 ml Whole cow milk
- Zest of 1/2 lemon
- 7 Egg yolks
- 120 g Sugar
- 50 g All-purpose flour or Flour 00
For Torta della Nonna Cake:
- 150 g Unsalted butter
- 300 g Plain biscuits
- 2 Handfuls of pine nuts
- Powdered sugar
Instructions
Make the Pastry Cream.
- Add the milk into a saucepan. Add the lemon zest, only the yellow part. Heat over medium heat until it boils.
- In a large bowl, add egg yolks, sugar, and flour. Whisk until creamy, but don’t whip the mixture.
- Remove from the heat the boiling milk and pour it into the yolk mixture through a sieve, little by little, stirring constantly.
- Return to the stove and continue cooking over low heat, stirring constantly with a whisk. When the cream has thickened, pour immediately it into a bowl to cool quickly. Allow to cool completely.
Make the Crust.
- In a food processor, mix cookies with melted butter until smooth.
- Pour 2/3 of the mixture into a 9-inch (22 cm) springform pan, forming 2 cm edges. Chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Assemble Torta della Nonna.
- Pour in the cold pastry cream and top with the remaining mixture mixed with a handful of pine nuts, previously toasted. Sprinkle with other pine nuts and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
- Transfer the cake from the pan to a platter. Decorate with powdered sugar and enjoy your delicious no-bake Italian cake!