Walk into any Italian coffee bar in the morning and you are sure to see someone eating the most classic Italian breakfast: a cornetto and a cappuccino. Cornetti are flaky breakfast pastries that resemble French croissants, but are actually quite different in that the dough is brioche-based.
Having a warm, fresh cornetto in the morning is a real treat, but one that most people outside of Italy can’t enjoy. That is, unless you make them yourself!
This recipe is definitely a project: it requires a couple days of work and an overnight rest, plus a stand mixer and some high quality ingredients. It also seems like a complicated process, but if you take some care it’s much easier to pull off than you might think so resist feeling overwhelmed when you skim the instructions. The beauty of homemade cornetti is that you can freeze a batch and have them ready to bake on demand, whenever you like!
A Brief Note Ingredients
First of all, we’ve given the ingredient amounts by weight in grams. When baking delicate pastries, precision is a must so it’s best to measure everything carefully. Volumetric measurements are anything but precise.
Good brioche dough requires a high gluten, or high protein, flour. Looks for 00 flour with a protein content of 14.5 to 15.5%. Here’s a direct link to the Manitoba flour we used to make cornetti.
You will also need a very good, European butter. European butter has a higher fat content, which is a must for this recipe. Kerrygold Irish butter is a popular option in North America; it will work but we’ve found German butter to perform slightly better, if you can find it.
Temperature
Temperature plays a key role in this recipe. For starters, when making the brioche it’s important that the dough remains under 78.8° F (26° C). Regularly check the dough with an instant read thermometer. If it’s getting close to that threshold but the dough still needs more time to work, try placing it in the fridge for a few minutes before proceeding so that it can cool down slightly.
When laminating the dough and butter, high temperatures are sure to cause trouble: the dough can split and the baked cornetti will be more likely to leak butter when baked. Try to work in a cool environment and, if the dough starts to stick or split a lot, consider chilling it for a little while before continuing to roll it.
Finally, temperature greatly affects rising time. The easiest thing to do is not to stress about the ambient temperature too much, but to just be patient and let the cornetti rise for as long as is necessary to become fluffy and jiggly before baking. Don’t rush it, the pastries need to properly rise or else they won’t bake well!
Freezing Cornetti
Once the cornetti are cut, rolled and shaped, they can be frozen and saved for cooking later. Place a tray of shaped, raw cornetti in the freezer. When the dough is frozen solid, the pastries can be transferred into a bag or smaller container.
To bake them, all you need to do is remove them from the freezer, place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet, and let them rise as normal. Just remember that they will need extra time to rise as they first need to thaw.
Trouble Shooting
If you find that your cornetti leak butter in the oven, there are a few things to investigate. First is the butter. It may be that you need better, higher quality butter. Another key cause could be the laminating process: if you worked in a warm environment, the lamination might have some flaws that cause butter leakage.
If you’re unhappy with how the cornetti cook, i.e. they are either overcooked or undercooked in the center, it’s usually just a matter of adjusting the temperature and baking time. In the former case, cook for less time in a slightly hotter oven. In the latter case, cook for more time in a slightly cooler oven.
Watch the Pasta Grammar video:
CORNETTI RECIPE
Makes: 7 cornetti
Cook Time: Roughly 24 hours including an overnight rest, largely unattended
For the brioche dough, you will need:
250 grams high-gluten 00 flour
5 grams active dry yeast
90 ml whole milk
1 large egg (even better if you precisely measure 50 grams of beaten egg)
10 grams honey
40 grams granulated sugar
5 grams salt
15 grams unsalted European butter, room temperature
½ teaspoon (2.5 ml) vanilla extract, or a pinch of scraped vanilla bean seeds
For the lamination, you will need:
150 grams European butter, room temperature
High-gluten 00 flour for dusting
For the egg wash, you will need:
1 large egg
1 tablespoon (15 ml) whole milk
Start by preparing the brioche dough. Keep in mind that the dough will need to rest in the fridge for about 12 hours, so we recommend starting the dough the evening before you plan to cook or freeze the finished cornetti.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the flour, yeast, milk, egg and honey. Using a hook attachment and a medium/slow speed, mix the ingredients in the mixer until a rough, crumbly dough forms.
Thoroughly mix the sugar and salt in a small bowl. Add about ⅓ of the sugar mix into the dough while continuing to knead with the mixer. When the sugar is well-incorporated into the dough, add another ⅓ and keep mixing. Repeat until the last third of the sugar mix is fully incorporated.
Add the butter and vanilla and keep mixing the dough. At this point, you’ll want to periodically check the dough’s temperature with an instant read thermometer to make sure it doesn’t exceed 78.8° F (26° C). If it gets close, let the dough rest in the fridge for a few minutes to let it cool down before proceeding. See above for more info in the notes.
The dough is done mixing when it is smooth, even, and forms into one unified piece on the dough hook. Transfer the dough onto a smooth surface (preferably stainless steel, marble or granite) and form it into a ball. The best way to do this is to place the dough about a foot away from your torso, grasp it in front with both hands cupped around, and slide it toward you. Turn the dough 90° and repeat a few more times. This will stretch the outside of the dough down in different directions and help smooth the top.
Place the dough back in the mixing bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let it rise at room temperature for 1 hour. Meanwhile, prepare your laminating butter.
Cut the laminating butter (150 g) into chunks and spread them on a large sheet of parchment paper, so that they are arranged in a rough rectangle (about 4 x 3 inches, or 10 x 7.5 cm). Fold the parchment paper to enclose the butter, but into a larger rectangle measuring 8 x 5 inches (20 x 13 cm). Using a rolling pin, beat and roll the butter until it evenly fills the paper rectangle. The end result should be a thin sheet of butter, wrapped in paper, measuring 8 x 5 inches. Place the butter sheet in the fridge and let it chill overnight.
After the dough has risen, use a rolling pin to roll it out into a rectangle (or as close as you can get it, it will end up more like an oval in reality), about 1 inch (2.5 cm) thick. The size doesn’t matter too much, it should just be partially rolled to help with the next day’s lamination. Place the dough on a baking tray, cover it with plastic wrap, and let it rest in the fridge for about 12 hours.
After the dough has rested, it’s time to laminate it with the butter. Start by rolling the dough with a rolling pin into a rectangle.
In order to fit the 8 x 5 inch butter sheet, the dough rectangle should be 9 inches (23 cm) wide and 10 inches (25 cm) long. Please note that the rounded ends of the dough will need to be trimmed off to make a perfect rectangle, so the measurement applies after trimming.
When the dough is rolled and trimmed into a 10 x 9 inch rectangle, unwrap the chilled butter sheet and place it in the middle of the dough. It should lie perpendicular to the dough sheet so that its 8 inch length stretches across the dough and nearly meets the edges (the dough should overlap on the sides a little bit). Fold the long ends of the dough rectangle inward so that they meet in the center, on top of the butter sheet. Gently press the ends together to seal them.
With a rolling pin, beat the dough across the surface repeatedly to help spread the butter out evenly. Then, roll the dough out until it is a rectangle measuring about 12 x 6 inches (30.5 x 15 cm).
During the lamination process, you might need a very light dusting of flour if the dough starts to stick. Generally speaking, though, if your dough is sticky it probably means that you are working in too warm of an environment (in which case try chilling the dough in the fridge for 10-15 minutes before proceeding).
When the dough is rolled, trim off any rounded edges to make a perfect rectangle, then fold the dough up lengthwise in thirds. Optionally, you can cut a shallow incision along the final folded edge to help the fold lay flat.
Wrap the folded dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for 45 minutes.
Then, repeat these laminating steps:
Roll the dough until it’s about 12 x 6 inches
Trim the rounded edges
Fold the dough in thirds
Wrap it in plastic
Refrigerate for 45 minutes
Roll the dough until it’s about 12 x 6 inches
Trim the rounded edges
Fold the dough in thirds
Wrap it in plastic
Refrigerate for 1 hour
After you have laminated and chilled the dough three times, you can proceed to cut and shape the cornetti. Roll the dough out into a big rectangle, about 13 x 11 inches (33 x 4.5 cm) and ⅛ inch (32 mm) thin.
Cut the dough into 7 equal triangles. The easiest way to do this is to make 4 marks along one of the long edges of the dough, evenly spaced apart. On the opposite side, make 3 marks that line up in between the first marks (see diagram). Cut along the dotted lines indicated in the diagram to make 7 triangles (plus some dough scraps, which can be discarded).
Make a 1 inch (2.5 cm) incision in the bottom of a triangle, then roll the dough up toward the tip to form a cornetto. You can bend the ends in toward each other slightly, to give the classic crescent shape. Place it on a parchment-lined baking sheet and repeat to form the remaining cornetti.
At this point, you can freeze the cornetti for baking later. Place the tray in the freezer until the dough is frozen solid, then transfer the cornetti into a bag. To bake them, thaw the desired amount of cornetti on a parchment lined baking sheet and let them rise per the instructions below.
Let the cornetti rise, uncovered (preferably at a temperature of 78.8° F, or 26° C, although room temperature will work). Depending on the temperature, this can take 2 to 4 hours, possibly even more. The cornetti are ready to bake when they have noticeably risen and are jiggly when you shake the tray. Be patient, it takes time!
Preheat the oven to 350° F (175° C).
Make an egg wash by whisking an egg with a tablespoon of milk. Brush the tops of the cornetti with the egg wash.
Bake the cornetti for 18 to 20 minutes, until deeply golden on top. In our opinion, cornetti are best enjoyed warm and fresh, but they are more delicate when hot so let them cool for a few minutes before serving. Although not quite as good, the cornetti will last at room temperature for a day or two, and can even be reheated slightly in a warm oven.
For the traditional Italian breakfast experience, dip them in a sweetened cappuccino.
Buon appetito!