FP!

I'm whitening my home. :o(
I have taken some days off to do that, and I'm more tired than I usually am when I go to work. But I'm happy to have a new and fresh atmosphere and, most importantly, I have been forced to clean out all of the clutter and I have made space!
I haven't had time to check Etsy and the forums on these days, but I know I have been on the FP more than once because I had many visits and many more hearts. And for the first time I managed to grab a screenshot! So, many thanks to devotees, my hand painted mug is very happy now. :o)

Btw, devotees sells some very nice shirts, I especially love the deer.
I suppose I have been on the FP at least a second time thanks to some EST girl: I don't know who she is, but thank you so much, my Cremino soap have reached over 480 visits and has been sold today!

Some thoughts and a recipe

By now I'm used to neglect my blog. But I have to say that surfing your blogs (where you=you EST girls) I found out that I'm not the only lazy one! ;)
Anyway, I thought the main reason I don't spend much time on my blog is because I don't find it useful, and I don't like useless things, so I don't feel at home here. Yes, I like to tell you something about my life, but honestly, who cares about it?
So, I'll try to fill this blog with more useful and interesting things.

Let's start with something really useful :o) and tasty. What better way to awake my blog than to post a good and sweet tart recipe?
VERY USEFUL subject, in my opinion, especially in such a bad weather...it has been raining for more than a week here. :o)
I'll tell you the recipe of my crust tart (in Italy we call it crostata), a very simple recipe, the same my mother have made since I was a child and probably the only one I really like.
Some friend of mine who tried to make it said this pastry is too difficult to make. I don't understand why, conversely I think it's the easiest pastry you can make.
Surely it's a rustic and familiar tart, the pastry is not so flawless as the real pâte sucrée should be, but I think it has a nice texture, neither too fine nor too coarse, neither too tender nor too crunchy.
My mum took this recipe from an old book by the famous cook Pellegrino Artusi, "La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiare bene" (The Science of Cooking and the Art of Eating Well). We use the "B" recipe for pasta frolla, the base tart dough.

Here it is:

250 gr flour
125 gr unsalted butter (we traditionally use unsalted butter only)
110 gr white sugar
1 egg and 1 yolk
a pinch of salt

The procedure my mum and I use is probably a bit different from the original one, because we don't let the butter at room temperature and we don't cream it before adding the rest of ingredients. We simply combine flour and sugar and then we add the cool butter chopped in small chunks and the eggs. We start mixing with a fork until fine crumbs have formed and then we knead by hand.
The only important thing to remember is to not overwork the pastry, you should touch it as little as possible or it will become pasty and it will loose its friable nature. The dough doesn't need to be perfectly homogeneous, you have just to incorporate all the ingredients.
I usually don't refrigerate the pastry before using it (the purists would say you should do it). I use it as is, spreading out the dough in a buttered cake pan.
I use this pastry to make nice crust tarts, with jam or fresh fruits. My favorite one is the crostata di albicocche (apricot jam tart). I bake the crust already filled with jam, at 175°/180° for 40/45 min.
BTW, here is a very good pâte sucrée recipe.