INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

Referred to by family members as just Messapine. It is a traditional treat
at Christmas. Mother mixes up the pastry and dough and invites one of the
daughters to help her roll it out the following day. The notable
differences in our recipes are the addition of baking powder and the way it
is rolled out. Some of the younger family members use your method but there
is a significant loss to the traditional flakiness of the pastry. Well
worth the effort and a fun evening for mother and daughter.
Pastry Dough: Sift together the flour and baking powder. Cut in the butter
till it is fine as meal. Add the COLD water and mix into a smooth dough.
Cover and refrigerate.
Filling: Blend the almond paste and sugar in a blender or food processor.
Add the eggs to the almond sugar mixture and mix thoroughly. Cover and
refrigerate.
REFRIGERATE both the pastry and filling overnight. To prepare for baking:
Remove filling from fridge and allow to warm to room temperature. Keep
dough refrigerated. Divide the dough into 8 parts. Shape each part into a
ball and roll into a very large rectangle. The pastry should be almost
paper thin. Carefully spread the filling evenly over the pastry: Divide the
filling into 8 portions. The filling is sticky and the fragile pastry tears
easily. Use small dollops of filling and spread with a spatula. Roll up
like a jelly roll. Starting from a long side. Place on large baking sheets.
Brush with egg slightly beaten egg white and sprinkle with sugar. Bake at
425    degrees F. for 25 minutes.
Posted to TNT Recipes Digest by "Jackie VanderVeen" <jackie@lasal.net> on
Feb 14, 1998

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