A Cannoli, for those not in the know, is a Sicilian pastry in a tube shape and is traditionally filled with a vanilla, cinnamon and pistachio nut flavoured ricotta cream.
These days the pastry is formed in a metal Cannoli mould, which I see are now available at Lakeland, deep-fried or baked and then filled with the cream and dusted with icing sugar.
I decided, having already spent a small fortune with Lakeland this month, that I was going to go down the traditional route and use Cannoli Sticks, which the lovely Mr Right found time to make for me (having spent the entire morning repairing a fence in gale force wind and lashing rain) out of a broomstick (new I hasten to add) cut into approx 15cm lengths with the rough end sanded off.
Mr Right making the Cannoli Sticks |
Finished sticks |
I found a recipe for the baked shells on the internet and got to work.
The dough is quite elastic in consistency but easy to work with and I cut out my 7.5cm squares and wrapped them around the sticks
Wrapped and ready for the oven |
and popped them into a super hot oven for 7 minutes. Here's what they looked like when they emerged
Shells cooling |
Then I decided to make a cinnamon, vanilla and chocolate chip pastry custard to fill
Finished Cannolis |
The cannolis were yummy, although I couldn't eat more than one at a sitting (believe me I tried!) and surprisingly easy to make and you can freeze the shells for filling at a later date, just pop them in a hot oven for a couple of minutes to crisp up. I think it would be quite nice to have some smaller, thinner cannoli sticks made and do some bite-sized ones for parties.
Nothing like a bit of teamwork ;-)!
ReplyDeleteThose look amazing, and your filling sounds like pure decadence! You will just have to persevere till you manage more than one in a sitting!
Thanks! The filling makes it and I will keep trying, two is the goal, my other half had two and he said he struggled :)
ReplyDeleteNote, I used a nice new(ish) gleaming(ish) baking tray with you in mind!
oooh now they look yummy!
ReplyDelete