Photo of La Rocciata by Mario
Surprise!
Christmas is just round the corner, so here’s a little treat for all you food lovers – Italian Rocciata. It’s a sweet pastry filled with festive flavours. Apples, walnuts, cinnamon…mmm! Well, there’s nothing else to say here rather than let’s get baking!
LA ROCCIATA
Prep time: 25 minutes (+ 1 hour resting time)
Cook time: 1 hour
Total time: 1 hour 25 minutes + resting time
Makes 8 rolls
Recipe by Tom
INGREDIENTS
For sweet pastry:
- 250 g plain flour
- 80 g icing sugar
- 125 g soft butter
- 1 whole egg
- Zest of half a lemon
For the filling:
- 300 g Bramley apples, peeled, cored and diced.
- 100 g roughly chopped walnuts
- 20 g coconut
- 60 g sultanas
- 60 g caster sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
INSTRUCTIONS
- Start with the pastry. Sift flour and icing sugar into a mixing bowl, add butter, egg and lemon zest. Mix altogether using your hand until smooth. Cover the bowl with cling film and rest in the fridge for 1 hour.
- While pastry is resting, do the filling. Place apples, walnuts, coconut, sultanas, sugar and cinnamon in a bowl, mix together with a spoon and set aside.
- Take a couple of baking trays, line them with baking paper and set aside for later.
- After resting time, take the pastry out of the fridge and divide into 8 equal pieces.
- Shape each piece with your hands into a square, then roll them out into square sheets.
- Divide the mix equally between all pastry sheets placing it slightly off the middle, now fold over to form a roll.
- Pat the edges of each pastry using your fingers. This will seal the edges and keep all the juices inside.
- Score the top of each roll with a cocktail stick. This will allow the steam to escape during baking and prevent the pastry from bursting or leaking.
- Place them on the baking trays and bake in a pre-heated oven, 180 degrees Celsius, for about 1 hour, until golden brown.
- Serve hot with your favourite sauce 🙂
NOTES
- These pastry rolls are a great example of festive treats and I think they go well with brandy sauce. For simple brandy sauce use 25 ml of brandy per 100 ml of double cream (pour brandy into a pan, bring to the boil to cook off the alcohol, add double cream, bring to the boil again and reduce by a quarter).
- Although they should be served hot, they’re actually pretty good cold with a cup of coffee.
