What's a cannoli?

"I made cannolis this week"
"Eh, What's a cannoli?"
"You don't know what a cannoli is, do you!?"

If you have yet to try a cannoli, bookmark this page RIGHT NOW. Bookmarked? Good.


Maryann, from Finding La Dolce Vita and Marie, of Proud Italian Cook are requesting for us to share our favourite Italian dish. Well, there are many Italian dishes that I adore but when it comes to desserts my favourite are rainbow cookies AND cannolis AND napolean cake. I'm hoping that someone else has taken on the task of sharing their favourite recipe for rainbow cookies and napolean cakes for this event! If you haven't participated yet, there you go, that's my suggestion. ;) (You just have to make them quickly!)


At Rocco's (where I worked as a teen), cannoli's were sold daily and I would grab that piping bag and squeeze all that yumminess into more than a dozen cannoli shells a day. Whoever thought, I would eventually make cannolis from scratch? NOT I! Cannolis are quite sweet, yet a gorgeous, Italian dessert and personally, I prefer the miniature cannolis dipped into chopped pistachio nuts. If anyone has suggestions on how I can make miniature cannolis please speak up and let me know. I've yet to purchase a cannoli in the UK, though, I'm certain they would sell them in an Italian pastry shop in London. (Perhaps, one of my London readers can direct me to them.)

If you attempt making cannolis (WHICH I HOPE YOU WILL), please try your best to get hold of fresh Ricotta. If you can't find fresh ricotta, make fresh ricotta. For my first batch, I did use ricotta from a container and yes, they were good, however, fortunately on Saturday, I purchased some fresh ricotta at Borough Market and my second batch turned out simply incredibly delicious, more than I could possibly imagine. (Yes, I'm boasting, I was pleased.)

After reading several recipes, here's my version of cannolis. You can play around with this recipe, using caster sugar instead of icing, adding chocolate to the filling, leaving out the glace cherries, coating it with melted chocolate; the choice is yours. More recipes for Cannoli's at Epicurious.


(oops forgot to add the icing sugar!)

Cannolis
(enough for 3)

You will need 3 cannoli rods. I purchased mine off ebay.

For the Filling

100g of Fresh Ricotta
100g of Marscopone
drop of vanilla extract
chopped glace cherries about 3-4
tspn of glace ginger
fresh lemon peel
tspn of mixed peel
50g of iced sugar or caster sugar

Simply mash the ricotta and marscopone with a fork. Blend in the sugar and vanilla extract, then add the lemon zest, mixed peel, and glace cherries. The mixture can be made a day in advance and stored in the fridge.

For the Shell

80g flour
tspn cocoa powder
1T caster sugar
10g of unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes
1/2 tspn of instant coffee
pinch of cinnamon
1 1/2T dry white wine
1/2 tspn marsala or sherry

a beaten egg
oil for deep frying



Prepare the pastry, by mixing the sieved flour, cocoa powder, cinnamon, coffee and sugar in a bowl. Rub in the butter, then add the wine and marsala and mix until the dough forms together. Store in the fridge for half an hour.

Roll out the dough thin. Cut it into 3 squares. Oil the cannoli rods. Using your cannoli rod wrap the pastry around starting from the corner. Press the dough together and use a bit of egg mixture to hold the dough in place. The egg helps hold the pastry in place while deep frying.

Heat the oil in a deep fat fryer or pan; drop a piece of pastry into the oil to test if the oil is hot enough. If it crisps within seconds, you can add a couple of cannoli rods at a time. It can take from 20seconds-a minute, depending on the temperature of the oil. You want to ensure that it is cooked through and could be broken up into pastry crumbs.



For the Dip (optional)

chocolate chips
pistachio nuts
chopped cherries

Using a piping bag or a spoon fill your cannoli shells, once they have cooled. Dip the ends into your chosen sweet or nut mixture. Top with icing sugar.

(How could I forget the icing sugar! Don't forget the icing sugar!)

Dig in and start your diet tomorrow!


Here you go, I saved you a bite.