Deliziosa Napoletana
Hazelnut cream, pasta frolla, a ring of toasted nuts

Name: Deliziosa Napoletana
Total time: 1 h 30 min
Cuisine: Campanian
Ingredients: 1 batch pasta frolla, chilled; 150 ml whole milk; 2 egg yolks; 50 g sugar; 15 g cornstarch; 150 g unsalted butter, softened; 100 g hazelnut paste (pasta di nocciole); 100 g toasted hazelnuts, chopped, for the edge; Powdered sugar, to finish

A round finger pastry built on contrast: two thin, crisp disks of pasta frolla around a soft hazelnut cream, the exposed edge rolled in toasted hazelnuts, the top buried in powdered sugar. A fixture of the Sunday vassoio delle paste, easy to overlook next to the more famous names on the tray and worth stopping for anyway.

Naples' pastry tray gets crowded with famous names — sfogliatella, babà, the whole pan di spagna family — and the deliziosa napoletana tends to sit quietly among them, a round, unassuming finger pastry that isn't sponge-based at all. It's built on pasta frolla instead: two thin disks of the same shortcrust used in every crostata on this blog, sandwiching a hazelnut cream rather than jam or fruit. It shows up on the Sunday tray as reliably as anything else, just without the name recognition.

What makes it worth knowing is the filling, which isn't a single cream but two combined: a hazelnut buttercream — butter beaten with pasta di nocciole, hazelnut paste — lightened by folding in a small batch of plain crema pasticcera. The pastry cream is what keeps a straight buttercream from being too heavy or too sweet for a bite-sized pastry; the hazelnut paste is what makes it unmistakably this pastry and not any other cream-filled cookie. Once the two disks are pressed together, the cream squeezes slightly out at the edge — that ring gets rolled in toasted, chopped hazelnuts, and the top is buried under a heavy dusting of powdered sugar. The contrast is the whole point: crisp, short pastry against soft cream, smooth cream against the crunch of the nut edge.

Two creams in one — hazelnut buttercream lightened with pastry cream — rather than either alone. That's what separates it from a simple hazelnut cookie.

The variations follow the same logic as most pastry-tray staples: swap the hazelnut paste and hazelnuts for pistachio for a green-tinted version, work dark chocolate chips into the cream or use a cocoa frolla for a chocolate one, or — the faster home version — replace the buttercream entirely with sweetened ricotta and chocolate chips, lighter and quicker than making a proper buttercream from scratch.

The recipe

Makes about 8-10 small pastries, depending on the cutter size.

Deliziosa napoletana — infographic by Giuseppe Astarita

Deliziosa Napoletana — pasta frolla sandwiching hazelnut buttercream, rolled in toasted hazelnuts. Click to enlarge.

1 batch, chilledPasta frolla

150 mlWhole milk

2Egg yolks

50 gSugar

15 gCornstarch

150 g, softenedUnsalted butter

100 gHazelnut paste (pasta di nocciole)

100 g, toasted, choppedHazelnuts, for the edge

To finishPowdered sugar

Roll out the pasta frolla and cut into rounds with a cookie cutter, about 7-8 cm across. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 12-15 minutes, until pale gold, not deeply browned. Cool completely.

Make a small batch of pastry cream: whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until pale, whisk in the cornstarch, then temper with the hot milk and cook over medium-low heat, stirring, until thick. Press plastic wrap onto the surface and cool completely.

Beat the softened butter with the hazelnut paste until light and fluffy. Fold in the cooled pastry cream a spoonful at a time until fully combined and smooth.

Both the butter and the pastry cream need to be at the same temperature — cold pastry cream folded into soft butter will split rather than combine smoothly.

Pipe or spread the hazelnut cream onto one frolla disk and press a second disk on top, gently, so a visible ring of cream is pushed out at the edge.

Roll the exposed cream edge in the chopped toasted hazelnuts so it's fully coated. Dust the top generously with powdered sugar just before serving.

Pasta Frolla

The shortcrust base underneath this and most crostate on the blog. See the full recipe.

Le Creme della Pasticceria Napoletana

Where this hazelnut buttercream fits among all the other Neapolitan pastry creams. See the full guide.

Buon appetito.

Deliziosa Napoletana Hazelnut cream, pasta frolla, a ring of toasted nuts

The recipe

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Deliziosa Napoletana
Hazelnut cream, pasta frolla, a ring of toasted nuts