Cannoli Shells
I can't say that making cannoli has ever been really high on my cooking bucket list. In fact, until someone mentioned them when I posted the pictures of my finds in my mom's kitchen, I hadn't even thought of them. But, when you have cannoli forms and a pasta machine, making cannoli seems inevitable.
There are a number of different recipes and I ended up latching onto one with cocoa powder in the dough even though, as far as I know, the ones I've had at the local bakeries have only ever been the blonde version.
Still, I went shopping for sweet Marsala wine yesterday, cleaned my grungy cannoli forms/tubes last night and this morning at 8 am, I started the cannoli. I didn't buy any ricotta cheese. In fact, I'm still debating on whether to do so as it's pricey and, frankly, I thought whipping cream would be a lot less work. By 10:30 am, I had 33 cannoli shells (29 full sized ones and 4 minis).
A quick snap of the minis filled with sweetened whipped cream ... cause I had to taste the shells. I'm saving the nicest shells for a ricotta filling. Maybe I'll go out today after my lawn guy comes to pick up a tub. In any case, that's the filling recipe I HOPE to use.
ETA: 09/17/2013 Revised ricotta filling recipe posted
Steps in making cannoli
Sweet Marsala - You can also use sweet sherry or vermouth to make these cannoli shells. Incidentally, now that I have a bottle of Marsala in my liquor cabinet pantry, can Veal Marsala, tiramisu or zabaglione be far behind?
Templates - I had to work on the perfect size of dough to wrap around my 1 inch diameter cannoli tubes. So, I printed out an oval (A) that was about 2 3/4" across. The two sides didn't QUITE meet in the middle, so I did some playing around. Template C was a good size with the tube oriented north to south (along the longest side). For mini cannoli, Template D was perfect with the tube oriented east to west (along the shortest side).
Cannoli dough, tubes ... the chocolate dough darkens further as it sits.
Close-up of the cannoli dough (1/4 portion of the ball above). I rolled it out in my pasta machine to about 1/16-1/8 inch thickness which was the 2nd highest setting (6) of my 7 setting machine.
Cutting the cannoli dough using the template, rolling it onto the tubes. I dabbed some water on the inside edge before overlapping the dough and patting it gently to seal. You can just use a 3 1/2-4" diameter circle if you wish.
First batch of cannoli using half the dough - I got impatient and started cooking it while the thermometer was still coming up to temperature. The oil ended up only being about 300 deg F.
Comparison of 300 deg F (2 on the left) and 500 plus deg F (2 on the right) cannoli - While I was cooling the tubes and rolling out the second batch of dough for frying, my oil temperature got way too high, about 500 deg F, which was the limit of the thermometer scale. It took less than a minute before the cannoli were done. The bubbles were noticeably smaller on the cannoli fried at the higher temperature. I actually liked the look of them more than the first batch.
The mini cannoli were one biters while it took about 2 bites to devour the larger ones. The cannoli on the left was the only one that wasn't sealed perfectly ... I was getting a bit tired standing and rolling the pasta and frying by myself by this point. These cannoli were filled with sweetened whipping cream.
Cannoli Shells - makes about 30 x 4 1/2 inch cannoli
1 1/3 cups flour
2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tbsp vegetable shortening, lard or butter**
6 -7 tbsp sweet Marsala wine** or sweet vermouth
Egg white for sealing or water** if you're concerned about it sticking to the cannoli tubes
** What I ended up using
In a food processor, process together the flour, cocoa, salt and sugar for 5 seconds or so. Add the shortening and pulse until the shortening is finely crumbled, about 10 seconds. With processor running, pour in the Marsala through the feed tube until a ball of dough starts forming around the blade. (It took 7 mls of wine until this happened for me.) Then, stop adding the Marsala and process for another minute.
Remove the dough and knead for 2 to 3 minutes. It's ok if the outside of the dough tears after you're done kneading unlike with pizza or bread dough where you want gluten strands to have developed during the kneading.
Let the dough sit wrapped in saran wrap or a ziplock bag for one hour to rest at room temperature.
Lightly oil the outside of the cannoli tubes the first time they're going to be used if new or if they've been cleaned. (I didn't bother but you may not want to take the risk of sticking.)
Cut the dough into 4 pieces and proceed as for making pasta dough with each piece.
Run the slightly flattened dough through the first setting on the pasta rollers 3 times, folding each time into thirds and then once on each of the other settings. If the dough sticks, flour very lightly. I didn't go to the last setting on my machine (7) but stopped at the one before it (6).
Use template C (4 1/2 inch oval), placed lengthwise, to cut the cannoli. The dough will just overlap. Dab a little water on the edge and seal together, patting gently to flatten the thicker area a bit, and set down on a tray lined with plastic wrap until you've made as many as you have tubes for.
Fry at 360-375 deg F for about 45 seconds (they'll turn a pinkish colour, shake from the tube back into the oil, or remove using a paper towel for your hand, and let complete frying for another minute or so. You may want to flip the cannoli with a fork so they get cooked evenly on all sides.
(NOTE: I didn't notice the dough being appreciably lighter coloured inside or less cooked on the couple that I didn't do this for so you may not want to bother removing the cannoli from the tubes. Just fry them on the tubes for the full 2 minutes or so.)
Ricotta Filling for Cannoli - enough filling for 18 x 4 1/2 inch cannoli
1 pound (500 gm) ricotta
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp Grand Marnier (optional)
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips
Powdered sugar, for dusting
Place a strainer over a bowl. Line with cheesecloth and pour ricotta into the cheesecloth. Wrap up and place a weight over the cheese. Refrigerate overnight to strain out as much excess moisture as possible. If the ricotta is not very fine, process in food processor until it's ultra smooth.
Add icing sugar and vanilla extract to processed ricotta cheese until well blended.
Remove processing blade and stir in mini chocolate chips.
Spoon the filling into a pastry bag with an open tip, and place the bag in the refrigerator.
Fill cannoli shells just before serving. Dust with icing sugar.
There are a number of different recipes and I ended up latching onto one with cocoa powder in the dough even though, as far as I know, the ones I've had at the local bakeries have only ever been the blonde version.
Still, I went shopping for sweet Marsala wine yesterday, cleaned my grungy cannoli forms/tubes last night and this morning at 8 am, I started the cannoli. I didn't buy any ricotta cheese. In fact, I'm still debating on whether to do so as it's pricey and, frankly, I thought whipping cream would be a lot less work. By 10:30 am, I had 33 cannoli shells (29 full sized ones and 4 minis).
A quick snap of the minis filled with sweetened whipped cream ... cause I had to taste the shells. I'm saving the nicest shells for a ricotta filling. Maybe I'll go out today after my lawn guy comes to pick up a tub. In any case, that's the filling recipe I HOPE to use.
ETA: 09/17/2013 Revised ricotta filling recipe posted
Steps in making cannoli
Sweet Marsala - You can also use sweet sherry or vermouth to make these cannoli shells. Incidentally, now that I have a bottle of Marsala in my liquor cabinet pantry, can Veal Marsala, tiramisu or zabaglione be far behind?
Templates - I had to work on the perfect size of dough to wrap around my 1 inch diameter cannoli tubes. So, I printed out an oval (A) that was about 2 3/4" across. The two sides didn't QUITE meet in the middle, so I did some playing around. Template C was a good size with the tube oriented north to south (along the longest side). For mini cannoli, Template D was perfect with the tube oriented east to west (along the shortest side).
Cannoli dough, tubes ... the chocolate dough darkens further as it sits.
Close-up of the cannoli dough (1/4 portion of the ball above). I rolled it out in my pasta machine to about 1/16-1/8 inch thickness which was the 2nd highest setting (6) of my 7 setting machine.
Cutting the cannoli dough using the template, rolling it onto the tubes. I dabbed some water on the inside edge before overlapping the dough and patting it gently to seal. You can just use a 3 1/2-4" diameter circle if you wish.
First batch of cannoli using half the dough - I got impatient and started cooking it while the thermometer was still coming up to temperature. The oil ended up only being about 300 deg F.
Comparison of 300 deg F (2 on the left) and 500 plus deg F (2 on the right) cannoli - While I was cooling the tubes and rolling out the second batch of dough for frying, my oil temperature got way too high, about 500 deg F, which was the limit of the thermometer scale. It took less than a minute before the cannoli were done. The bubbles were noticeably smaller on the cannoli fried at the higher temperature. I actually liked the look of them more than the first batch.
The mini cannoli were one biters while it took about 2 bites to devour the larger ones. The cannoli on the left was the only one that wasn't sealed perfectly ... I was getting a bit tired standing and rolling the pasta and frying by myself by this point. These cannoli were filled with sweetened whipping cream.
Cannoli Shells - makes about 30 x 4 1/2 inch cannoli
1 1/3 cups flour
2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tbsp vegetable shortening, lard or butter**
6 -7 tbsp sweet Marsala wine** or sweet vermouth
Egg white for sealing or water** if you're concerned about it sticking to the cannoli tubes
** What I ended up using
In a food processor, process together the flour, cocoa, salt and sugar for 5 seconds or so. Add the shortening and pulse until the shortening is finely crumbled, about 10 seconds. With processor running, pour in the Marsala through the feed tube until a ball of dough starts forming around the blade. (It took 7 mls of wine until this happened for me.) Then, stop adding the Marsala and process for another minute.
Remove the dough and knead for 2 to 3 minutes. It's ok if the outside of the dough tears after you're done kneading unlike with pizza or bread dough where you want gluten strands to have developed during the kneading.
Let the dough sit wrapped in saran wrap or a ziplock bag for one hour to rest at room temperature.
Lightly oil the outside of the cannoli tubes the first time they're going to be used if new or if they've been cleaned. (I didn't bother but you may not want to take the risk of sticking.)
Cut the dough into 4 pieces and proceed as for making pasta dough with each piece.
Run the slightly flattened dough through the first setting on the pasta rollers 3 times, folding each time into thirds and then once on each of the other settings. If the dough sticks, flour very lightly. I didn't go to the last setting on my machine (7) but stopped at the one before it (6).
Use template C (4 1/2 inch oval), placed lengthwise, to cut the cannoli. The dough will just overlap. Dab a little water on the edge and seal together, patting gently to flatten the thicker area a bit, and set down on a tray lined with plastic wrap until you've made as many as you have tubes for.
Fry at 360-375 deg F for about 45 seconds (they'll turn a pinkish colour, shake from the tube back into the oil, or remove using a paper towel for your hand, and let complete frying for another minute or so. You may want to flip the cannoli with a fork so they get cooked evenly on all sides.
(NOTE: I didn't notice the dough being appreciably lighter coloured inside or less cooked on the couple that I didn't do this for so you may not want to bother removing the cannoli from the tubes. Just fry them on the tubes for the full 2 minutes or so.)
Ricotta Filling for Cannoli - enough filling for 18 x 4 1/2 inch cannoli
1 pound (500 gm) ricotta
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp Grand Marnier (optional)
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips
Powdered sugar, for dusting
Place a strainer over a bowl. Line with cheesecloth and pour ricotta into the cheesecloth. Wrap up and place a weight over the cheese. Refrigerate overnight to strain out as much excess moisture as possible. If the ricotta is not very fine, process in food processor until it's ultra smooth.
Add icing sugar and vanilla extract to processed ricotta cheese until well blended.
Remove processing blade and stir in mini chocolate chips.
Spoon the filling into a pastry bag with an open tip, and place the bag in the refrigerator.
Fill cannoli shells just before serving. Dust with icing sugar.