Sfogliatelle Recipe {Step By Step With Pictures} (2024)

Sfogliatelle Ricce is an iconic Italian pastry originated in Napoli, Campagnia region.

Super thin layers of crunchy dough filled with delicious orange and cinnamon flavored ricotta cream.

In this recipe for sfogliatelle you'll find everything you need to make it a success: best tools to use, tips and tricks ans step by step pictures.

The word Sfogliatelle is pronounced as [sfoo-llia-te-lle] in its plural form. One single pastry is called "sfogliatella".

In Neapolitan dialect you might often hear them pronounced as [schwee-ah-dell].

Whatever you call them, they are a dream, a magic and a legend in and of itself.

Some might say that they’re also known for being complicated to make and even complicated to explain the whole preparation process.

But let me assure you, with a little bit of patience, a good pasta machine and these step-by-step photo instructions you can easily and successfully learn how to make your own homemade sfogliatelle!

Let's start with the tools you'll need.

For the dough:

• Pasta Machine
• Rolling Pin
• Standing Mixer or Food Processor (optional)
• Large work surface, preferably wooden

For the filling:

• Small Pot
• Large mixing bowl
• Whisk
• Spatula

Wondering if you really need pasta machine to make sfogliatelle?
The short answer is YES! If you want to facilitate the process pasta machine is essential for super thin dough rolling.

Not that you can’t do it by hand (you certainly can) but it requires certain skills.

Besides pasta machine will save you a ton of energy and time and at the same time giving a better quality pastry.

I'm using Atlas Pasta Machine by Marcato. And not only for sfogliatelle but for ALL things pasta and pastries that require thin and equal rolling.

You can read my review, detailed user guide and cleaning and care instructions here:

Another essential tool to make sfogliatelle (even if you're going to use pasta machine) is a rolling pin.

It’s good to have a standing mixer or a food processor, again, to make the life easier, but you can totally do without it.

How To Make Sfogliatelle - Step By Step

Preparing the dough

• In a large mixing bowl add flour, salt give a stir.
  Add honey and lukewarm water (photos 1, 2).
• Mix well with your hands or in a stand mixer until you get a crumbly dough (photos 3, 4).
  NOTE: Make sure all flour is mixed in. If there's still lots of dry flour left at the borron of the bowl, add a tablespoon or two of water to make all the flour come together. There's no need to make a smooth ball of dough, if fact, don't do it! Even if the temptation is strong leave the dough crumbly, it’ll all come together later in the process.
• Cover the dough with a plastic wrap or linen towel and let rest for 30 minutes.

• Past that time divide the dough in 3-4 parts. Take one part and keep the rest of the dough covered to prevent it from drying.
• Pass the first part of the dough through pasta machine on the widest setting. On Marcato Altas it's setting “0 ”. Fold it over on itself, rotate and pass again on the same thickness setting until you get a sheet of dough without holes and relatively smooth (photos 5-10). It
• Repeat the same process with the rest of the dough.
• Stack all dough pieces together and wrap in a plastic wrap. Let rest for 2 hours at room temperature.
• Once the dough has rested roll each piece with a rolling pin to flatten it out and help fit the widest setting on your pasta machine. You can connect all dough pieces together or divide them in two, which is easier.
• If needed pass the dough on the same setting several times repeating the folding process, until you get a smooth and even sheet.
• Then set the regulating knob of the pasta machine to the next setting (setting 1) and pass it again. Continue increasing thickness setting until you get to the thinnest sheet possible (setting 7-8 on Marcato Atlas Pasta Machine).
  See photos 11-13.
  NOTE: You’ll need to pass the dough just once on that last thickness setting.
  IMPORTANT: at no stage you should need to dust the dough with flour. If you make it correctly it won't stick to the pasta machine. If you have the dough that sticks a little bit you can lightly dust it with flour at while you're still working it on the widest setting of the pasta machine.

• When you start passing the dough on the last (thinnest) setting stop the machine a couple of times as the dough sheet comes through and roll it up onto the rolling pin.
• The ends (handles) of the rolling pin should be settled between two water bottles or soup bowls (or flour sacks) to prevent the dough from touching the table (photos 14, 15).
• Repeat the same process with the remaining dough chunks.At the end you should get a sheet pastry approx 15 feet long and 5-6 inches wide rolled over the rolling pin.
• Keep the dough covered with a plastic wrap until you move to the next step (photo 16).

• Prepare lard at room temperature. If using butter, it should also be at room temperature.
  Start to unfold the dough from the rolling pin.
• Extend the dough sheet over a clean work surface and grease it thoroughly with lard/butter making sure you smear well the edges as well (photos 17, 18).
• Place your hands underneath the dough and gently stretch it outwards elongating it to approx. 7-8 inches wide (photo 19).
• Roll the greased piece into a very tight roll and unfold another section. Repeat the greasing, stretching and rolling process until you’ve used all the dough from the rolling pin.
• As a result you should get a very tight kind of dough log (photo 20).
• Grease it all over with remaining lard/butter, cover with a plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 3 hours or better yet overnight.
  TIP: If you are short on time you can place it in the freezer for about an hour.

Prepare the cream

• In a stove-top pot add milk, salt and sugar. Stir well and bring the mixture to boil.
  NOTE: if you don't have full ricotta this is the step where you add butter too.
• Constantly stirring slowly add semolina. Continue whisking to avoid formation of the lumps and cook for 3 minutes. Let cool completely.
• In a food processor add cooked semolina, ricotta and an egg. Beat until you get smooth and even texture. If you don’t have a food processor just use a hand-hold or standing mixer.
• Add candied oranges, cinnamon, vanilla extract and orange blossom water.
  Mix with a whisk and set aside.

How To Shape Sfogliatelle

• Take the sfogliatelle dough log out of the fridge and while it’s still covered with a plastic wrap gently but firmly squeeze and stretch it with your hands going from the center towards the sides (photos 21, 22),
• Remove the plastic wrap and cut off uneven side of the log, then cut into approx ¾ inch or a little less (1.5-2cm) slices (photos 23, 24).

• To form the sfogliatelle cone, take a dough slice and start gently working it with your fingers.Using your thumbs and a rotating motion push the center of the slice out opening up dough layers and forming a cone shape (photos 25-28).
  Be careful not to push the layers too much apart, you still want them to stay together.

How To Stuff Sfogliatelle

• Holding sfogliatella in one hand fill the cavity of the cone with ricotta cream (photo 29).
  IMPORTANT NOTE: Make sure to fill with enough cream so that sfogliatella stays full and puffy. If the cream is not enough it’ll simply flatten out in the oven.
• Put together the edges of the opening as you can.
  They don’t have to be perfectly sealed. The cream is thick enough to hold in the pastry (photo 30).
  Place sfogliatelle on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (photo 31).

• Preheat the oven to 392F (200C).
  Bake sfogliatelle in a preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.
• Serve warm generously dusted with confectioners’ sugar.

If you have any leftover filling, make these Lazy Sfogliatelle using just puff pastry and a knife!

Top Tips For Success

• Make sure to use high protein bread flour.
• Start adding water slowly. Add a little extra only if there's dry flour left on the bottom of the bowl. Sfogliatelle dough SHOULD be crumbly after first kneading.
• Don't skip resting time. The dough should rest 3 times: after first kneading (30 minutes) , after rolling through pasta machine (2 hours or more) and lastly once greased with lard (at least 3 hours in the fridge or even better overnight). Skipping any of the resting time will compromise the dough structure.
• Use cooking lard. You can get high quality lard easily at the grocery store or online. While it's technically possible to use butter, the result will be a far cry from the original. There's the reason why authentic Neapolitan Sfogliatelle recipe calls for lard!
• If possible make sfogliatelle dough the day before. You'll have a better dough and more energy to finish making them the next day. If you want you can also make a filling the day before serving them. This way the next day all you have to do it shape, fill sfogliatelle with creamy and bake.

How Sfogliatella Was Born - Story

According to the story, which is surprisingly univocal for an Italian dish, sfogliatelle were invented by a nun in the Santa Rosa monastery on the Amalfi riviera, back in the XVI century.

She noticed some left semolina, that had already been cooked in milk, so she decided to flavour it with other ingredients and to make some sort of cake, not to throw away something that could not be preserved.

She added dried fruit - a common ingredient to add sweetness at the times refined sugar was not available - and a lemon-scented liqueur that we are allowed to assume was similar to nowadays limoncello.

She then wrapped it all in puff pastry and baked it.

The story tells the sfogliatella, whose shape at first meant to resemble a monk’s hood, was offered to peasants of the village of Conca dei Marmi, where the monastery of Santa Rosa da Lima is still found, as a compensation for the foods they used to bring to the nuns.

Soon sfogliatelle became a beloved pastry and precious trade goods.

It is not clear how he did it exactly, but the story goes on by saying that in the XIX century a certain Pasquale Pintauro from Naples acquired the receipt, jealously kept secret by the monastery until then.

At that time, Pintauro was actually an innkeeper, but nowadays he is remembered as a pastry chef and his name is definitely linked to sfogliatella.

He converted his tavern into a pastry shop and started selling sfogliatelle, with some slight amendments to the recipe.

It’s allegedly Pasquale Pintauro the one to whom we now owe the two main kinds of sfogliatelle: riccia e frolla.

This Sfogliatelle recipe was originally published on February 25th, 2018. It has been updated with more helpful information and new photos.

Full Recipe

Buon Appetito!