A friend asked me to take an Italian Pastry Class with her couple weeks ago It was more like a cooking demo than a class. If you ask me does the 2 sections class worth $50, I would tell you "No". The instructor is very nice but didn't really made anything successful. Well, I did learn some new Italian pastry terms beside biscotti or Napoleon such as Cannoli and Sfogliatella (the lobster tail). By the way, my friend K is a very good cake decorator. she is the one made the Penguin Cake for me. She is now taking order as well. Feel free to check out her blog!
Since I didn't get to taste the real Cannoli or Sfogliatella, now I am all curious! I can ei ther make it myself or find a place that is selling one. Finding a place selling this type of pastry (I mean good quality one) in Salt Lake City is almost impossible. Well, just at the moment thinking if I should made it myself, my friend brought me the Cannoli tubes as birthday present. Ok. I made it. Perfect time for a practice run before my Cannoli show down with my friend K. Although it takes me 3 hours just to make the shells, the shells did turn out well. For the fillings, I have to use some substitutes as most of the store is closed on Sunday here. The combination of the shell and filling is different than what I expect. I think if I use the real liqueur in the filling instead of flavoring would make it taste so much better. But I would never know what a Cannoli supposed to taste like until I had one myself. So, here is the Not-So-Perfect Cannoli recipe based on my Italian Pastry instructor. Hopefully I can have a improved one soon.
For the shells (made about 36 shells)
Ingredients:
- 3 cups flour
- 3 tablespoon melted butter
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 cup red wine
- 1 egg yolk, slightly beaten
- oil for deep fry
- Stiff flour and mix with the sugar, salt and butter. Gradually add the wine to form a dough. Knead until a smooth and soft dough is form. Cover and place in the fridge for 1 hour (I think 15-30 minutes at room temperature is fine. The dough is kind of dry after 1 hour in the fridge. I have to add some wine to re-moist it).
- Divide dough into 2 parts and roll into paper-thin sheets. Cut into 4 inches circles.
- Roll the circle with the Cannoli tube inside. Seal with the beaten egg yolk and press together. Make sure it is seal well. Otherwise, you will have a deep fry round sheet inside of a deep fry tube. I had ~5 fail tube within the 36ish Cannoli I make.
- Heat oil to ~350F and deep fry the 2-3 cannoli at a time (depending how big is your deep fry pot) for 2-3 minutes until golden. Remove and place the Cannoli on a rack to drain the oil.
- Once it is cool to touchable temperature, remove the Cannoli tube from the Cannoli. Swipe clean the tube with paper towel and use it on the remaining sheets.
The unfilled Cannoli is good up to 2 month if keep in a air tight container in a cool, dry place.
For the filling (I scale it down to fill about 12 shells)
Ingredients:
- 1 lb ricotta cheese
- 1/2 cup powder sugar
- 2 tea spoons brandy flavoring (suppose to use ~3 table spoons creme de cacao or other sweet liqueur, but liqueur store is not open on Sunday...)
- 1-2 tablespoons grated bittersweet chocolate (I couldn't find a bittersweet baking chocolate block and used the unsweetened one. Should have buy the semi-sweet one instead as ricotta cheese is so plain in taste)
- 1 tablespoons orange peel (should be candied orange peel but couldn't find it in normal supermarket)
- Beat the ricotta vigorously for ~2 minutes until fluffy.
- Add the powder sugar and flavoring. Beat for another 5 minutes.
- Mix in the grated chocolate and organ peel.
- Use it to fill the Cannoli. I supposed to garnish the end with chopped pistachio but I couldn't find the unsalted pistachio!!! So, I have to skip it.
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