Pasta Frolla Recipe - Easy Italian Shortcrust Pastry Recipe (2024)

The art of making the perfect crumbly crostata or Italian sweet shortcrust pastry for cookies starts with this easy and quick pasta frolla recipe. Pasta frolla is the Italian term for sweet shortcrust pastry made from a base of flour, butter, egg and sugar.

In just a few steps, you can prepare this dessert base pasta frolla recipe and make shortcrust pastry cookies with icing sugar to serve along with coffee or tea. Or perhaps you are in the mood for a nutella crostata, simply follow this pasta frolla recipe, then blind bake the tart case or shell and top with a generous layer of nutella chocolate hazelnut spread. So yummy!

Ingredients

• All-purpose flour (2.64 cups | 330 grams + extra to flour the pastry board and rolling pin) – be sure to sift the flour so the flour particles are small and easily absorbed by the liquid portion for a smooth pastry dough.
• Unsalted butter (11.79 tbsp | 165 grams) – cold unsalted butter should be softened to room temperature. Some recipes call for “cutting” in cold butter, but we prefer this more traditional method of using it softened.
• Egg (1 whole egg + 2 additional egg yolks) – the eggs should be small or medium and you can set the egg whites aside to make another recipe.
• Granulated sugar (0.65 cups | 130 grams) – this is a sweet shortcrust for dessert cuisine so you will definitely need to add white sugar to make it sweet. We don’t recommend using other types of sugar such as brown sugar or raw sugar because it changes the texture of the pastry dough too much.
• Lemon zest (1) – zest of one rind or you can substitute with other citrus zest such as orange zest.
• Vanilla extract (1 teaspoon or 1 packet of vanilla powder or the seeds of 1 vanilla pod) – if you prefer to just have the lemon flavor you can also choose to leave out vanilla altogether for your Italian sweet shortcrust pastry.
• Salt (1 pinch) – a tiny amount of salt actually brings out the sweetness in this Italian pasta frolla.

How to make pasta frolla step-by-step

Whipping the first ingredients. First, leave the cold butter out at room temperature until it softens. In a large bowl use an electric beater to whip the softened butter with the sugar, lemon zest, and vanilla for at least 3 to 4 minutes until frothy and fluffy (photo 2).

Now add the eggs one at a time, still whipping with an electric beater until completely mixed in and frothy (photo 3). Alternatively, you can use a stand mixer with a flat beater or paddle attachment to do this type of beating/mixing.

Add dry ingredients and form a dough ball. Now pour the flour into the mixture (photo 4) and mix all the ingredients quickly with a spatula or fork (photo 5), do not over-stir. Place the dough on a flat board or work surface and compact it quickly with cold hands (photo 6). If it turns out too soft, add a little more flour, but just enough to form a smooth ball. Do not knead the mixture.

Chill the sweet pastry dough. Wrap the ball tightly in cling film (photo 7), flatten slightly and place in the fridge to chill for 1-2 hours or in the freezer for 30 minutes. This classic shortbread dough with butter, no matter how you plan to use it, should be rolled out when cold.

Use shortcrust pastry dough to make something. When you are ready to use this basic recipe for pasta frolla in one of the delicious Italian desserts it can be used for, simply dust a flat work surface with very little flour and lightly flour a rolling pin and then roll out the dough into the shape you want.

Expert tips

• Over-crumbly dough. If your dough is too crumbly and won’t stay together in the form you are trying to make it into such as a crostata base or cookie, most likely you have overworked the dough. If this happens, add a teaspoon of cold water and mix with a fork for a very brief period and then try to form again.
• Let it chill. Never try to work with the Italian pastry dough while it is still warm or room temperature. Always wrap in plastic wrap and let it rest for 1-2 hours in the refrigerator or 30 minutes in the freezer so the butter can compact and the dough is easier to roll out.
• Use parchment. If you are making a crostata or pie crust, you can roll out the pasta frolla dough directly onto parchment paper and then flip it over and gently press into the desired mold.

Other recipes that uses pasta frolla:

• Peach Crostata Recipe [Crostata alla marmellata di pesche]
• Authentic Italian Crostata
• Authentic Italian Butter Cookies Recipe
• Torta della Nonna
• Chocolate and Pear Strudel
• Pizza di Ricotta

Variations to pasta frolla

• Skip the butter. If you prefer not to use butter to make this basic dough, then you can substitute the butter with 5.5 tbsp | 75 grams of sunflower oil. The rest of the sweet pastry dough recipe is exactly the same.
• Add some baking powder. If you plan to use this recipe to make crostata or tart base, you can add 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder into the dough when you add the flour and you will have a slightly softer shell that puffs up ever so slightly.

FAQs

Pasta Frolla Italian Shortcrust Pastry Dough Recipe

Italian pasta frolla is used to make delicious desserts such as crostata, tarts, cookies and much more. Follow the recipe instructions below for this easy to make, quick recipe for delicious cookies or an Italian pastry such as crostata, tarts and much more.

4.67 from 21 votes

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Course: Base, Dessert

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour

Servings: 30 cookies

Calories: 103kcal

Author: Guido Pedrelli

Ingredients

• ▢ 330 gr (2.64 cups) all-purpose flour + extra to flour the pastry board and rolling pin
• ▢ 165 gr (11.79 tbsp) butter softened to room temperature, or 75 grams sunflower oil
• ▢ 1 (1) whole egg medium
• ▢ 2 (2) egg yolks small
• ▢ 130 gr (0.65 cups) granulated sugar
• ▢ 1 (1) lemon zest organic only
• ▢ 1 teaspoon (1 teaspoon) vanilla extract or 1 packet of powder or the seeds of 1 pod
• ▢ 1 pinch (1 pinch) salt

Instructions

• ▢

  First, leave the cold butter out at room temperature until it softens.

• ▢

  In a large bowl, use an electric beater to whip the softened butter with the sugar, lemon zest and vanilla for at least 3 to 4 minutes until frothy and fluffy.

• ▢

  Now add the eggs one at a time, still whipping with an electric beater. When the first one has absorbed add the second and so on. You should get a frothy mixture.

• ▢

  Now pour the flour into the mixture and mix quickly with a spatula or fork, do not over stir.

• ▢

  Place the pastry dough on a flat board or work surface and compact it quickly with cold hands. If it turns out too soft, add a little more flour, but just enough to form a ball. Do not over mix or knead!

• ▢

  Wrap the dough ball tightly in plastic wrap, flatten slightly and place in the fridge to chill for 1-2 hours or in the freezer for 30 minutes. No matter how you plan to use it, this classic shortbread dough with butter should only be rolled out when cold.

• ▢

  When you are ready to use this pasta frolla basic recipe in another of the delicious Italian dessert recipes it can be used for, simply dust a flat work surface with a very small amount of flour and lightly flour a rolling pin and then roll out the dough into the desired shape and bake as needed.

Serving: 30g | Calories: 103kcal | Carbohydrates: 13g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 30mg | Sodium: 40mg | Potassium: 17mg | Fiber: 0.3g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 163IU | Vitamin C: 0.3mg | Calcium: 6mg | Iron: 1mg

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