Sfogliatelle

Well I thought macarons were tricky to get right until I tried to make these bad boys.  Sfogliatelle (I don't even know how to pronounce it) looked so unbelievably tasty on Food Safari Italian a few weeks ago, I had to try them.

See the recipe - somewhat unfinished - over here.  The amount of sugar to be added in the second step of the filling isn't mentioned.  I added 1/3 of a cup as a guess.  The filling didn't come out overly sweet, but I think they tasted pretty good.  Getting the pastry to the point you see below was fun, however pushing the discs out into a shell shape was extremely difficult to do neatly.  Adding more and more lard seemed to help.  I hate to think what the final fat content of these things was.  Also, keeping the window open and a cold breeze blowing in made the pastry easier to work with.

The pastry before pushed out into the shell shape

The filling

The filled shells waiting for the oven.  

The finished product! 

Fresh out of the oven, the pastry was so crisp, and the filling gooey.  However the next day, the pastry had lost all the crispiness, and they were generally disappointing!  Next time I think I'll try baking only a few and freezing the un-cooked ones.  I think a trip to Brunetti in Carlton is also warranted, just so I can see what the real thing is supposed to be like!