Daring Bakers: Cannoli
Friday, November 27th, 2009
I’m so happy to report that my first Daring Bakers challenge was a total success! And a tasty one at that!
The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.
Note: Rather than posting all of the instructions here (and there are a lot of ‘em), here is a link to Lisa’s blog where she has the complete and detailed info. Keep scrolling for my experience with making cannoli.
Because I had never made cannoli, naturally I didn’t have any cannoli forms. I found 4 stainless steel forms
After sanding about the 8th dowel, I was wondering why I really needed that many. But in the end they did come in handy, as I was able to form most of the cannoli shells at once then fry them without having to stop and wait for the forms to cool before moving on.
From what I had read before, cannoli dough can be pretty difficult to roll out by hand. But as I don’t have a pasta machine (the other method for rolling out), I decided to just go for it. I divided the dough in half and rolled out a one at a time. I quickly learned just how difficult this dough really is. The minute I thought, “Hey, I’m getting somewhere here” it would shrink and become half the size of what I had just rolled out. It finally gave in after a lot more rolling and I was able to start cutting out the circles.
After they were cut, I rolled them into an oval shape, wrapped them around the oiled cannoli forms and sealed them with egg whites. I did the same thing for the second half of the dough, but this time rolled it even thinner. This resulted in better blistering of the shells when they were fried.
While the shells were cooling, I made the fillings. I had planned on only doing a traditional ricotta and a pumpkin version. But, in my true nature, I over did it a bit. When all was said a done, I ended up with 5 different fillings. Five. Why? I’m not really sure.
The flavors are (clockwise): Key lime mascarpone, traditional ricotta with mini chocolate chips, peppermint mocha, pumpkin pecan and chocolate raspberry cannoli fillings. (Recipes are below)
I drained the ricotta overnight to get the excess moisture out but I think something went a little off, as my ricotta was a bit grainy and not very smooth. It still tasted great though.
Also, when the shells were completely cool (before filling), I dipped the ends of a few in melted dark chocolate. For the peppermint mocha cannoli, I rolled the ends in peppermint pieces before the chocolate hardened.
So what to do with the scraps of dough left over? You could re-roll them and make more cannoli OR you could dunk them in the oil and make crispy little cannoli bites. Of course, to make it even better you could drizzle dark chocolate and sprinkle them with confectioners’ sugar. I really should have made cannoli sooner. I never knew this was what I was missing.
If you look closely, you’ll see that I completely forgot to fill a shell with the chocolate raspberry filling. So just squint or use your imagination, please.
Recipes:
Key Lime Mascarpone Cannoli Filling
adapted from Epicurious
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tbsp freshly grated lime zest
4 tbsp bottled key lime juice (5 tbsp if fresh)
1 cup (1/2 lb) mascarpone cheese
With an electric mixer, beat cream cheese with sugar, zest and lime juice until smooth. Beat in mascarpone. Chill at least 4 hours before filling.
Pumpkin Pecan Cannoli Filling
adapted from Stonewall Kitchen
1 cup ricotta cheese, drained
1/2 cup Muirhead Pecan Pumpkin Butter
2 tbsp confectioners’ sugar
2 tsp granulated sugar
1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
Combine the ricotta, pumpkin butter and confectioners’ sugar and mix until well blended. Chill 2-4 hours.
Combine the 2 tsp granulated sugar and pumpkin pie spice. Sprinkle on the ends of the filled cannoli.
Note: This recipe was originally intended to use Stonewall Kitchen’s Maple Pumpkin Butter, but after searching every store in my area, I couldn’t find it. So I substituted Murihead Pecan Pumpkin Butter that I found at my local Williams-Sonoma.
Traditional, Chocolate Raspberry and Peppermint Mocha Cannoli Fillings
I used Lisa’s recommended ricotta recipe and divided it in thirds.
2 lbs ricotta cheese, drained
1 2/3 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons finely chopped candied orange peel or zest of one small to medium orange
unsweetened cocoa powder
mini chocolate chips
2 tbsp finely chopped good quality chocolate, divided
1/4 cup finely chopped peppermint candy pieces
1 tsp espresso powder
1/3 cup fresh raspberries
WIth an electric mixer, beat ricotta until smooth and creamy. Beat in confectioners’ sugar, cinnamon and vanilla; blend until smooth. Using a wooden spoon, stir in zest.
Divide the filling into three separate bowls (just about 1 cup in each bowl).
For the traditional ricotta, just mix in desired amount of mini chocolate chips.
Chocolate Raspberry filling: Mix in 2-3 tsp of cocoa powder (add to taste). Add in 1 tbsp of the finely chopped chocolate, and fresh raspberries. Blend well.
Peppermint Mocha filling: Mix in 2-3 tsp of cocoa powder (add to taste). Add in espresso powder, peppermint pieces and remaining 1 tbsp of chopped chocolate.
Chill fillings for about 4 hours before using.
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