These Soffioni Abruzzesi are cute little Italian cupcakes or muffins filled with a fluffy, sweet, and lemony ricotta cream. They are easy to make and so delicious. To make this pastry a success, please follow the instructions precisely and read through the recipe notes.
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Why This Recipe Stands Out
This Soffioni Abruzzesi recipe makes one of the most delicious Italian pastries you'll ever try. Here's why we love it:
- Authentic: This recipe stays true to its Italian roots, ensuring an authentic and traditional flavor.
- Simple Ingredients: You won't need any fancy or hard-to-find ingredients for this recipe. It uses simple pantry staples.
- Easy to Make: The recipe is broken down into easy-to-follow steps, making it simple for anyone to recreate these delicious pastries at home.
- Versatile: Although these sweet Ricotta muffins are traditionally served for Easter, there’s no reason why they can't be prepared for Christmas or at any other time of the year.
- Super Fluffy and Moist: These delicious Italian pastries come out super fluffy and moist, thanks to the Ricotta cheese.
Key Ingredients
- Eggs – We use eggs in both the shortcrust pastry and the ricotta filling. They act as a binding agent in the pastry and provide structure and richness to the filling.
- Ricotta Cheese – This is the star of our filling. It adds a creamy, slightly tangy flavor and a smooth, lusciously thick texture to the soffioni.
- Lemon – We use both lemon zest and lemon juice in the ricotta filling. They provide a fresh, citrusy contrast to the richness of the ricotta and eggs, and their acidity helps to balance the sweetness of the sugar.
- Vanilla Extract – It's used in the filling to add a warm, floral note that complements the other flavors.
Substitutions and Variations
Here are some of our favorite variations and substitutions for this classic Italian dessert:
- Shortcrust Pastry: The shortcrust pastry is what gives these soffioni their delicious, flaky crust. While we love the classic version, you could also try using puff pastry or a gluten-free pie crust as a time-saving substitute.
- Nuts: Some people like to add finely chopped almonds or pistachios to the ricotta filling.
How to Make Soffioni Abruzzesi
Step 1: Mix the shortcrust pastry ingredients and knead until smooth. Then, refrigerate for 1 hour.
Step 2: In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks, sugar, and lemon zest. Add Ricotta and vanilla.
Step 3: In another bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks, then fold into the Ricotta cream.
Step 4: Roll out the dough into squares and press them into the muffin pan cavities, leaving the corners sticking out.
Step 5: Fill each square with the Ricotta cream and fold the corners over the top.
Step 6: Preheat the oven to 350 F and bake the soffioni for 30 minutes. Then reduce the temperature to 325 F and bake for another 15-20 minutes until golden brown.
Step 7: Let them cool, then dust with icing sugar if desired.
For full list of ingredients and instructions, see recipe card below.
Frequently Asked Questions
Soffioni abruzzesi means means "Dandelion from Abruzzo", where Abruzzo is a region in Southern Italy.
These pastries have a flaky and buttery shortcrust pastry shell with a creamy and slightly fluffy ricotta filling. The combination of textures is what makes them so delicious.
Yes, you can prepare both the shortcrust pastry and the ricotta filling a day in advance. Just make sure to cover them properly and store them in the refrigerator. The pastry dough should be brought to room temperature before rolling and shaping.
These pastries can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Be sure to store them in an airtight container to make sure it stays fresh.
Recipe
Soffioni Abruzzesi
Ingredients
When baking I always recommend to use digital scales for the best accurate results. Here is my favorite digital scale.
For shortcrust pastry
- 1 ⅓ c all-purpose flour
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 3 tablespoon granulated sugar
For Ricotta filling
- 2 eggs
- 5 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 lemon zested
- 7 oz Ricotta cheese
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon icing sugar optional
Instructions
Make shortcrust pastry
- In a medium bowl whisk together 1 ⅓ c of flour and ⅛ teaspoon of salt. In another bigger bowl beat the egg with a fork or a whisk, just until the egg white and yolk are blended. Whisk in oil and 3 tablespoon of granulated sugar.Add sifted flour and salt mixture and first mix the dough with a spoon and then knead the dough with your hands until all ingredients are incorporated and the dough is smooth. Roll the dough into a ball, wrap it in cling wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Make Ricotta filling
- Separate the remaining 2 egg yolks from egg whites and keep both in different bowls.
- In a bowl with yolks add the 5 tablespoon of sugar and ¼ teaspoon of lemon zest. Using a hand whisk, mix until the mixture is fluffy and light (about 5 minutes).
- Add 7 oz of Ricotta cheese, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and continue whisking until cream is smooth.
- In a bowl with egg whites, add ¼ teaspoon of lemon juice and using a hand mixer, beat egg whites until stiff peaks. Using a spatula, slowly fold the egg whites into the Ricotta cream.
Roll out the dough
- Preheat the oven to 350 F and lightly dust the muffin pan cavities with a bit of flour.
- Remove the dough from the fridge and divide it into 6 pieces.Lightly dust a rolling pin and working surface with a flour and roll out each piece of dough into a square. It doesn't have to be perfect.
Arrange shortcrust dough in a muffin pan
- Arrange the squares among muffin pan cavities and leave out the flaps. Fill the squares with Ricotta cream and close the flaps.
Bake
- Bake for 30 minutes. Without opening the oven door, reduce the temperature to 325 F and continue baking for 15-20 minutes until tops are brown. Remove Soffioni from the oven, let them cool and then remove from the muffin pan.
- If desired, dust the pastries with some icing sugar.
Equipment
- Hand whisk
- Muffin pan
Notes
Nutrition
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Iryna Bychkiv is the founder and writer of the culinary website Lavender & Macarons, where she shares clean, European-inspired recipes that are delicious, easy to prepare, and made with wholesome ingredients. Iryna loves creating meals that are simple yet healthy and unique, including vegan and vegetarian recipes.
Iryna is also a freelance writer for MSN and Associated Press Wire.
Nina Kulish says
I made it once. It wasn't absolutely easy to make, but not too complicated. But the result was awesome! So delicious. Thank you.
mimi says
This dough is too dry, barely rolls out. Got only 5 squares out of it, I followed your recipe to a tee. I have made tons of pastry doughs, never this dry. The filling is way too much for 5 or even 7 muffins. After reading some of the reviews and saw the dry dough complaints where you said to add water. That should have been right under the recipe not in a reply to a review. Going to find a different recipe for this dough.
Janet says
I made these for the first time and followed your recipe exactly. Although instead of 6, I made 7, and they turned out delicious with just the right amount of filling. I made homemade ricotta for this recipe. I will definitely make it again.
Iryna Bychkiv says
Janet, thank you for your comment and 5-star rating! I'm so glad you liked this recipe!
Donna K says
Excellent taste! I’ll be making these again. Next time I’ll double the dough-I overfilled the first time and still had extra. I did freeze one to see if it held its texture and taste and it did. So delicious
Iryna Bychkiv says
Donna, thank you so much for your comment and 5-star rating! I'm happy you liked this recipe!
Joanne Santry says
I am an experienced home cook and baker. I was excited to try this recipe as this dessert is one of my favorites at the bakeries. The dough was very difficult to work with and was a dry crumbly mess. I did add water to it, but it still was too dry to roll out thinner than a quarter of an inch . The filling was equally difficult to achieve. It ended up being thin and runny. I will not make this recipe again I do ask that you relook at your recipe. It ended up being a waste of ingredients.
K J says
I tried making this recipe twice. The dough recipe is just off somehow. I always get a crumbly sandy mixture for the dough- not anything that can be rolled out at all, and nothing resembling a dough. I see that someone else has reported the same issue. Sad but I’ll have to find a different recipe somewhere else.
Craig says
I think you should proof read your recipes.
1) I think you used tablespoons instead of teaspoons for the sugar. Europeans desserts are not cloyingly sweet.
2) I think you forgot to put any water in the dough. Three tablespoons works okay, but more later.
3) This dough should be rolled out almost paper thin, it get tough at even an 1/8 of an inch thickness.
4) An almond flour dough might work better than all purpose flour.
5) There really is way too much filling for the dough.
This will be the last of your recipes I try; there are people on the internet who actually work on their recipes and make them ready to be published, this is not one of them
Beverly Steiner says
I wouldn’t make these again. The crust is way too dry to properly roll out and cooks to a hard overly sweet crust. The filling is enough to make 12 muffins which is twice what the crust does. I used 3 tablespoons of sugar instead of 5 tablespoons in the filling and it was still very sweet.