Cannoli (Italian dessert)

 

Supplies: Cannoli forms (at least 4), 3 T butter, 2 C flour, 2 T granulated sugar, 1/4 t cinnamon, 1/4 C cooking wine, like marsala, 1 whole egg, slightly beaten, 1 egg white (or milk), vegetable oil, 2 C Ricotta cheese, well drained, 1 t vanilla (I only use Nielsen-Massey), 1/2 C powdered sugar, 1/2 C semi-sweet mini chocolate chips, 1/2 C pistachio nuts.

Step 1: Mix together flour, sugar and cinnamon. Cut butter into the flour mixture to create coarse        crumbs. Gradually add wine a few drops at a time. Add whole beaten egg. Mix until pastry holds together. You may add more wine, if needed. Form into a ball, cover with wet paper towel and refrigerate 1-2 hours. Skip to Step 4 while waiting.

Step 2: Remove pastry from refrigerator onto lightly floured surface. Roll dough with rolling pin as thin as possible. Using a paring knife, cut the pastry into 4" ovals. If the dough is too thick, roll it out to make them into 5" ovals. Loosely wrap each oval onto a cannoli form, sealing the edges together using the egg white or milk.

Step 3: Heat 2" of vegetable oil in fry pan on medium heat to 400 degrees F. Place 2-3 cannoli forms wrapped with pastry into the hot oil until golden brown. Remove to a paper towel to cool for 2 minutes. Slide cannoli off of the forms. Repeat steps 2 & 3 until all pastry has been used, making approximately 12 cannolis.

Step 4: Filling: Mix together Ricotta cheese, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Using a grinder, place half the pistachios and half the chocolate chips in grinder together. Grind gently, but not to a powder. It should be chunky. Mix the ground nuts into the cheese mixture. Set aside until cannolis are fried.

Step 5: Place the filling into a pastry bag, or simply clip the corner of a sandwich bag, and squeeze into each cooled cannoli. Using the other half of each the pistachios and chocolate chips (not ground) dip each end of the cannoli into one or the other. It is best to fill just before serving.

Notes: I bought the cannoli forms at a kitchen shop that sells alot of cookware and accessories. They cost less than $6 for 4 forms. Cooled cannoli (unfilled) can be stored in a sealed tin with paper towels. But, when I did that and went to use them a few days later, they seemed "soft." So, I heated them up in the toaster oven, then let them sit on a cooling rack. That crisped them up pretty well.