Pusties Pastaciotti Recipes

PASTACIOTTI (AKA "PUSTIES")

Steps:

• 1. Make the fillings first, so that they are completely cooled by the time the crusts are ready to go.
• 2. Choose the flavor to start with and combine the flour and sugar in a saucepan. Slowly whisk in the eggs and milk until completely incorporated and smooth. Cook until thickened, stirring frequently (add chocolate at this point, stirring until completely melted). Cool, then add the flavoring of your choice. Make certain that the filling is completely cool before filling the crusts.
• 3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray the cups of a muffin pan or pustie tins with cooking spray and set aside. Mix all crust ingredients in a medium bowl. Do not overwork the dough or it will get tough. Break the dough into two separate rounds. Cover the first with Saran wrap to prevent drying while you roll out the other. Roll out the dough to a 1/4" thickness. Cut with a knife or pizza slicer into 12 (for large muffin tins) or 24 (for mini muffin tins) squares.
• 4. Pat bottom crusts into muffin cups, covering the bottoms and sides of each. Roll out the second dough round to 1/4" thickness. Cut into round tops with a biscuit cutter for tops.
• 5. Fill the cups with filling. Cover cups with dough tops. Trim off any excess dough. Paint the tops of the pusties with egg wash before baking.
• 6. Place in oven for 20 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes and then remove from tins and let continue to cool right side up.

PASTICIOTTI

Steps:

• In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt and 1 cup of sugar. Cut in margarine by pinching between your fingers, or using a pastry blender, until the mixture has lumps no larger than small peas. Make a well in the center, and pour in the eggs, 1/2 cup milk and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Stir until the mixture comes together, then knead for about 5 turns on a lightly floured surface.
• Roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thickness. Grease two 12 cup muffin tins or tart pans. Cut out 20 circles using a 3 inch cookie cutter or drinking glass. Line the muffin cups with the dough. Set aside the remaining dough to cut out tops for the cups.
• In the top of a double boiler, or in a metal bowl set atop a saucepan of simmering water, whisk together the cornstarch and 3/4 cup sugar. Gradually whisk in 3 of the egg yolks, and 1quart milk. Heat, stirring constantly, until thick and bubbling. Remove from the heat, and stir in the butter and 1 teaspoon of vanilla until the butter is melted.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Fill the pastry shells half way with the vanilla cream. Roll out remaining dough, and cut into circles for lids. Place over the top of the pastry shells, and seal the edges by pressing with the tines of a fork. Whisk the remaining egg yolk with a fork, and brush the tops of the pastry cups.
• Bake for 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown. Let cool in the tins before carefully loosening the edges to remove. Dust with confectioners' sugar before serving.

PUSTIES (AKA, PASTICCIOTTI)

Steps:

• 1. THE DOUGH In a large bowl, add baking powder, lard, butter, and 3 cups flour. Mix together with your hands, as you would a pie crust. Add sugars (brown & white) and mix further.
• 2. In a separate bowl, mix the eggs, water, and honey. Beat well.
• 3. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients (in the bowl containing the flour, baking powder, lard, and butter). Pour the egg mixture into the center and mix well with hands.
• 4. Continue adding flour ½ cup at a time and mix well until your reach the perfect consistency, not to sticky, yet not too dry/crumbly. You may or may not need all 6 cups of flour.
• 5. Knead for a few minutes, cover bowl with plastic wrap, and let rest in refrigerator for a few hours or overnight. NOTE: This makes enough dough for forty (40) pusties (assuming 3.5 inch diameter pusty tin).
• 6. THE CUSTARD Heat milk and cream in medium saucepan over medium-low heat until steaming. Be careful not to let it boil, or you'll have a mess on your hands.
• 7. Whisk together eggs, sugar, cornstarch, vanilla, nutmeg, and salt in bowl. Whisk steaming milk and cream into egg and cornstarch mixture in slow, steady stream.
• 8. Return egg and milk mixture to saucepan and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly with wooden spoon and scraping bottom of pan.
• 9. When custard begins to thicken and clump at the bottom of the saucepan, toss aside the wooden spoon and grab a whisk. Continue whisking the custard (breaking up the clumps at the bottom of the pan) until it thickens to the point that the whisk leaves a "trail" in the custard. Or, stated another way, keep whisking until the custard is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon and you can draw a line through it with your finger. Be careful not to over-thicken.
• 10. Remove from heat, pour into a bowl and cool to room temperature. NOTE: This will make enough custard for ten (10) pusties.
• 11. THE ASSEMBLY Place pizza stone on middle rack. Heat oven (and stone) at 500F for one hour. Seriously, let that stone heat for the full hour.
• 12. Break off little "meatball" of dough. On a lightly floured surface, use rolling pin to roll out dough into a thin round of 1/4 inch thickness. Place rolled-out dough round into pusty tin. Use thumbs to press dough into bottom and sides of the tin. Remove excess, overhanging dough.
• 13. Fill pustie with custard of choice. But don't overfill it! Leave a half inch or so of breathing room. Both the custard and the dough will plump in the oven, so overfilling will cause the lid (described in Step 6 below) to crack and/or separate from the base.
• 14. Roll out another little "meatball" of dough into a thin round. This will be the pustie's "lid." Cover pustie top with lid of dough, crimp with fingers to seal, and remove excess, overhanging dough. Place a little "button" of dough in the center of each vanilla pustie's lid, so that you can tell the vanilla ones from the chocolate.
• 15. Brush top of pustie with beaten egg yolk and sprinkle lightly with sugar. Then, using a paring knife, poke three slashes into the pustie's lid so that steam can escape during baking.
• 16. Repeat Steps 3 through 7 until you've prepared enough pusties to fill a baking pan. When you're ready to bake, lower the oven temperature to 450F
• 17. Cover baking pan full of pusties with aluminum foil and place directly onto heated baking stone. Bake for approximately 5 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 20 minutes, until the sides and bottoms of the pusties are golden brown. There's nothing worse than a doughy, undercooked pustie. A lot of people screw up perfectly good pusties by removing them from the oven too soon. You can't judge a pustie's doneness by the color of the lid. The lid will brown well before the bottom and sides, so don't freak out. Those pusties need to stay in the oven until the bottom and sides are browned. The foil on top for the first 5 minutes will help get the bottom and sides going before the top starts to brown. Let cool and remove from tins. Give the tins a gentle squeeze and the pusties should fall right out because of the lard in the dough.