The Bucket List
Not everything on my list is going to be something crazy big feat but there are some things that are going to be more time consuming that others, this was one of those things. I have always loved cannolis and fell in love with them on a trip to the Italian bakery in NY while visiting Tim's family many many years ago. I mean come on, how many Italian bakeries do you know of in NC.
Regina, Tim's mom, asked if I have ever tried this or that as we walked through looking at all those calories staring at me in pretty fluffy colors of fat, fatter, and really really fat. When we came to the cannolis she asked if I had ever had one. I don't think that I had and she got one of every flavor. They were amazing!! Since then I have ordered one when ever the opportunity arose but alas they can be a bit pricey. So why not make some of my own right. So here we go.
I used this recipe and I was pretty pleased with the results. I did change a few things but only in the filling. I did not use the maraschino cherries and I did not add the heavy whipping cream. I think next time I will use the cream to make the filling a little bit lighter.
Okay first things first, make the dough for the shells. I ended up adding more wine than what the recipe called for. Why? I found the dough dry and not sticking together like it is suppose to. The recipe said to make sure you roll the dough as thin as you can get it, I suggest this also, your shells will turn out better and lighter.
After you roll the dough out you need to cut out circles to wrap around the tubes for frying. If you have a large circle cookie cutter, I would use this. I used the bottom of a plastic martini glass. It served its purpose but I think it took longer because I couldn't just cut and go.
Next you wrap your little circle around the tube making sure you seal your ends well. The first one I did wasn't sealed and I ended up with a puffed taco shell looking shape. But it did give me a chance to taste the shell and it had just the right amount of sweetness.
Time to fry. Drop your wrapped tubes in your oil. I used shortening and I had my thermometer attached to the pan as I don't fry like this often and didn't want to have my oil to hot. Frying the shells take all of about a minute, no joke. You can not do anything else while you are frying or you will burn/over cook your shells.
Take the shells out of the oil and let them drain on a plate on a paper towel. Make sure you let them cool off seam side down. When it is time to take the shell off I suggest using a dish towel to hold on to the metal tube. The shell will be warm but the tube will be hot. Just twist the shell gently and it should slide right off. The first couple were a little difficult but after those I had no problems.
This recipe said it would make 24, give or take. I think that would have been accurate had I made the shells bigger. Next time I make these I'm making them bigger. They are great mini cannolis. Time for the sweeten cheese. If I had to make a suggestion, I would do the cheese before you start frying. This way it gives it more time to set up so it doesn't run all over the place when you pipe it in, like it did with mine.
After the cheese is pipped in sprinkle with powdered sugar and garnish as you wish. I could have added more mini chocolate chips or whipped cream, but I was out of time so I just went with the powdered sugar and called it done.
They tasted great and I think if the cheese was set up a little bit better the consistency would have been perfect. But this being my first time making these, I think they turned out really well.
Things I learned making this cannoli recipe
- 1. The time it says to make these is WRONG. I mean really wrong. It took me several hours but I think part of that is due to #2.
- Have more than 4 cannoli tubes for frying
- Make the shells bigger. I used the recommended diameter of 3-4 inches (mine was 3") and that is way too small. They would have been great if I was feeding 30+ people. Going to go with a 4" diameter next time
- Let the cheese set up longer. I was in a rush as I had to have these delivered by a certain time so the ricotta cheese literally only had about 30 minutes to set up. I don't think that is enough time. Because the cheese wasn't set it was running out of the sides of the shells. **(The next day the cannolis were great and just the way they were suppose to be)**
- Make them the day before and if you can have someone help you with all the steps. Maybe set up an assembly line.
On to another bucket list item.
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