HOMEMADE CANNOLI
“In making this recipe it makes one feel like you have a professional bakery touch in your own home.”
- Shells:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
- 1 egg yolk
- ½ cup dry white wine
- Filling:
- 2 cups ricotta cheese, preferably whole milk
- ¾ cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon allspice
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- ¼ cup small semisweet chocolate chips
- 1 lemon
- ± 1 litre canola oil, for frying
- all-purpose flour, for rolling
- 1 egg, lightly beaten, for egg wash
- powdered sugar, for dusting
For the shell dough:
In a medium bowl, sift together flour, sugar and salt. Work butter pieces into flour with fingers until the mixture becomes coarse and sandy. Add egg yolk and white wine and mix until it becomes a smooth dough. Spread a piece of plastic wrap on a flat surface and place the dough in the centre. Wrap plastic loosely around it and press dough to fill the gap. Flattening dough will mean less rolling later. Let it rest in fridge for a few minutes while you make the filling.
For the filling:
In a medium bowl, whisk ricotta until smooth. Sift in powdered sugar, cinnamon and allspice. Mix to blend. In a separate bowl (or in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment), beat heavy cream until fairly stiff. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold cream into ricotta mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Lightly zest exterior of lemon and stir it into ricotta. Refrigerate for a half hour to an hour.
To roll and fry the shells:
In a medium pot with a heavy bottom, heat canola oil to 182 °C. Meanwhile, sift an even layer of flour on a flat surface. Flour a rolling pin. Roll dough until it is very thin (about 3 mm thick).
Cut dough into fourths and work in small batches. Use any glass or small bowl that has a 75 – 100 mm diameter. Cut rounds, tracing around each one to assure dough has been fully cut.
You should have about 24 circles. Wrap each circle around a cannoli mold. Use a little of egg wash on edge of each round to seal it shut and to assure it will not slide or fall off mold before pressing it closed over mold. Flare edges out slightly from mold. Flaring will allow the oil to penetrate each cannoli shell as they fry.
Use a pair of tongs to hold edge of mold as you submerge and fry shell in oil until crispy, 2 – 3 minutes. Remove from oil, and holding mold in one hand and with your tongs, gently grip shell in your other hand with a kitchen towel and carefully slide it off mold.
Set aside to cool. Repeat with all of the circles.
To fill cannolis:
Just before serving, use a pastry bag without a tip to pipe ricotta into cannoli molds.
Fill cannoli shells from both ends so that cream runs through whole shell. Dust with powdered sugar. Powdered sugar gives that little extra sweetness and added texture to the exterior. Serve immediately.
If ricotta has an excess of liquid, drain it over a strainer for at least a half an hour before making filling. Do not fill shells with cream until you are ready to eat them.
Everyone loves a crispy cannoli.
Note:
We actually use a pasta machine and pass it at least 3 times through the machine before cutting it in rounds
Photo: Cassie De Klerk
Nota: Louise Panelatti
