Italian Grandmother's Cake

• 160g butter
• 400g flour
• 1 pinch of salt
• 3 eggs
• 150g sugar
• 0.5 untreated lemon
• 750ml milk
• 1 unprocessed lemon
• 3 eggs
• 1 egg yolk
• some freshly ground vanilla
• 225g sugar
• 35g cooking starch
• 30g flour
• 50g pine nut(will be sprinkled over the cake before baking)
• a bit of powdered sugar for dusting

Prepare the Dough (must then rest in the refrigerator)

1. Mix flour with pinch of salt and sift it into a large bowl. Create a well in the center.

2. Cut the butter into pieces and place it in the hollow, along with the egg, sugar, and unprocessed lemon.

3. Knead all the ingredients with your hands into a smooth dough. Shape the dough into a ball, wrap it in plastic wrap, and place it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

While the dough rests: Prepare the pudding cream

1. Pour milk into a small saucepan. Wash untreated lemon with hot water and zest the skin in large pieces using a grater or zester. Add to the milk in the saucepan. Heat the milk along with unprocessed lemon over medium heat, but do not bring it to a boil.

2. In a bowl, whisk together 2units egg, 1units egg yolk, 1units some freshly ground vanilla, 1units sugar, 1units cooking starch, and 1units flour vigorously. There should be no lumps remaining.

3. As soon as milk is about to boil, remove the pot from the heat and remove untreated lemon. Slowly pour in egg while stirring vigorously!

4. Place the pot back on the stove and cook 1u egg1u milk over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens into a pudding. Once the pudding thickens, remove the pot from the heat.

5. Pour the pudding mixture into a shallow dish and cover it with plastic wrap. The wrap should lie directly on the pudding to prevent a skin from forming. Let the pudding cool completely.

Then bake the Grandma's Cake

1. Grease a round mold with a diameter of about 28 cm and dust it with flour or line it with baking paper. Take the dough out of the refrigerator and briefly knead it again. Roll out 2⅓ flour as thinly as possible on a floured work surface and line the mold with it, raising the dough nicely along the edges.

2. Now spread the pudding cream onto the dough and smooth it out.

3. Roll out the remaining third of the dough as well and place it as a lid over the pudding cream, pressing the edges down slightly.

4. Sprinkle pine nut over the cake and bake the Torta della Nonna in the center of the preheated fan oven at 160 degrees for 50 minutes. Then increase the heat to 180 degrees and bake the cake for an additional 10 minutes, watching that it does not become too dark.

5. After baking, allow to cool completely and dust with powdered sugar before serving.