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Cornetti Siciliani, or little horn, are the Italian version of French croissants. Just like the french pastries, it is as flakey, buttery, and light as air-rolled pastries, and true to its Italian origins; it comes with more passion, some attitude, and a whole lot of love.
CORNETTO VS. CROISSANT
Cornetti is the plural of cornetto, and while it is very similar to a French croissant, there are main differences between the two:
- Both are made usingย brioche dough, but cornetti dough contains eggs, while croissant dough does not.
- Cornetti are a bit sweeter than Traditional croissants.
- Italian cornetto is rolled to the shape of horns, while croissant is rolled into a crescent shape.
- Cornetti are sometimes baked with different fillings, such asย Crema Pasticcera, (pastry cream) or other sweet fillings like Nutella, etc.
Unfortunately, unlike theย Maritozzo, here in the States itโs not as common to find Italian croissants at your local coffee shop, but after reading this post, you can make it in the comfort of your home kitchen to enjoy with a cup of coffee or cappuccino.
Easy puff pastry croissant dough
In a large bowl, make a well with the flour, sugar and yeast at this stage, if you want, you can add an aroma of your choice such as grated citrus peel or vanilla).
Add the water and start incorporating the flour. Little by little add the softened butter and finally the salt.
Knead for a long time with a planetary mixer or by hand which works equally well. Form a ball, place it in a bowl then cover with cling film and leave to rise for 2 hours in the fridge or you can prepare the dough the evening before and let it rest overnight in the fridge and work it the next day.
Prepare the butter
Many argue that to obtain a good honeycomb structure is necessary to roll out the dough quite tightly, which is partly true but what really matters is the high percentage of fat in the butter and the right folds.
In fact, I highly recommend an 85% fat butter. It will serve very soft, so take it out of the fridge in advance and soften it to an almost mayonnaise-like consistency.
Using a rolling pin, roll out the butter under baking paper to make it more malleable.
With a 3 millimeter thickness of your rolling pin, smooth out the butter into a large rectangle. Cover and place in the fridge for 5 minutes to prevent it from melting.
Finish the edges with a knife (we added more butter so as to eliminate excess butter and maintain an exactly rectangular shape).
Then take the dough out of the very cold fridge. (Similar consistency to shortcrust pastry)
The choice to make the dough cold ensures that it does not shrink on itself when we roll it out.
The brioche dough should be twice the size of the butter paste.
Place the butter dough on the left side of the brioche dough, adjust the corners and close it like a book.
Help yourself with a little flour sprinkled under and over the dough and gently roll it out.
Roll out the dough creating a long horizontal shape. Then proceed with the first fold (from left to center and from right to center) of the three total folds to be done at intervals of 3 times, placing it in the fridge with a cling film for about 30 minutes each.
In the final draft, make sure to use a sharp knife to cut only the โclosedโ part of the dough. This will make the application easier and will give a nice honeycomb in the end.
Also remember to roll out with the rolling pin from the right always with the help of a little flour, making regular back and forth movements.
Place one last time in the fridge (dough spread out on a tray) for 5/10 minutes so that the dough does not shrink.
Using a pastry wheel or sharp knife, divide the dough into triangles of approximately 8 cm.
Donโt throw away the leftover pieces but instead use them by creating a braid.
Take each triangle and gently stretch it (see video on instagram), then roll, holding the tip in place. If you want to add a filling you can do it now by adding half a spoonful of Nutella or custard. Or like I did, leave them empty and fill them once they are cold with the help of a sac ร poche.
Make sure the closure stays underneath.
Place the croissants thus formed on a baking tray lined with baking paper, cover with cling film and leave to rise for 2 hours until doubled in size. (Make sure the room temperature does not exceed 28 degrees celsius otherwise the butter would melt. The best season to make them is winter)
Once this time has elapsed, prepare a mixture with an egg yolk and two tablespoons of milk, then brush the easy flaky croissants and bake at 350ยฐF for 10/12 minutes until golden.
Once ready, take the croissants out of the oven, let them cool and dust them with powdered sugar.
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Cornetti Siciliani
Ingredients
Instructions
Place the flour, sugar and yeast in the stand mixer. Add the honey, milk, water and egg. Start kneading with the dough hook. Work the dough until the gluten mesh forms. When the dough is well worked and smooth, add the butter previously made creamy. Also add the vanilla and salt. Work the dough until the butter is completely absorbed. When the dough is ready, form a ball and leave it to rise for a couple of hours in a warm place or place it in the refrigerator overnight.
In the meantime, prepare the butter for flaking by rolling it to a thickness of about 5 mm. Place in the refrigerator until use.
The following morning, incorporate the butter into the previously rolled out dough.
Make three simple folds, interspersing them with a 30 minute rest in the refrigerator.
Roll out the dough to form a rectangle about 3 mm thick. Cut into triangles weighing approximately 90g.
Take a triangle, make a small cut at the base and pull the tip.
Form the croissant by rolling it.
Place the croissants on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Let rise for a couple of hours. You can brown the surface with beaten egg if you want before baking. Cook in a preheated oven for about 12/20 minutes (depending on your oven) at 360ยฐF. Remove from the oven to cool down. Fill your cornetti as you prefer. Sprinkle with icing sugar.
Our flaky cornetti are ready.
Your instructions say to use 50 eggs, do you mean 50 grams of egg? or 5 whole eggs? or do you actually mean 50 (fifty) whole eggs?
Omg! So sorry about that! I fixed it!
Itโs actually 50 grams which would be approximately 1 or 2 whole eggs (it is always better to measure with a scale)
Let me know if you have other questions!
Thank you!