Daring Bakers Challenge: Cannoli

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives.  She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchenby Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides.  She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

I am officially a Daring Baker, and this is my first challenge!  I’m not sure that I would ever have attempted to make cannoli on my own.  That’s why I joined the Daring Bakers…to bake outside the box (er, mixing bowl?).

I was excited to read that there was an option to bake the cannoli shells.  Since cannoli shells are traditionally fried, I knew that baked shells probably wouldn’t taste the same.  But I was curious about the baking method, and honestly, I’m afraid of large pots of hot oil (that’s why I’m a baker).

I was too impatient to order cannoli tubes online, and couldn’t find them at any of the local stores.  So I decided to improvise with a muffin pan.  Besides, I like the idea of cupcake-shaped cannoli.

I couldn’t get the dough to roll out as thin as I would have liked.  I did my best, and got 12 muffin cups filled with dough, plus a small amount of leftover dough.  After baking the dough that was in the muffin pan, I saw my pizza stone on the lower oven rack and got an idea.  The oven had been on for about an hour now, just long enough for the stone to be preheated.

After considering the ways that my experiment could backfire (or start a fire!), I decided to roll out the remaining dough as thin as possible and drop it onto the hot pizza stone to bake.  I baked two pieces for 4 minutes on each side.  Success!  Flat cannoli shells for a cannoli sandwich!

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives.  She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides.  She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

Below is the method that I used (including the baking method that I adapted from Lisa’s recipe).  The baked shells did not have the flaky texture of traditional fried shells, but they still taste like cannoli!

Lidisano’s Cannoli

For the shells:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
Approximately 1/2 cup sweet Marsala or any white or red wine you have on hand
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting completed cannoli, if desired

Combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, cinnamon, and salt with an electric mixer or food processor.  Add the oil, vinegar, and enough of the wine to make a soft dough.  I found that I needed the entire 1/2 cup of Marsala, plus a little more to get the dough to come together.  On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough until smooth and well blended, about 5 minutes.  Shape the dough into a ball and wrap with plastic wrap.  Let rest in the fridge from 2 hours to overnight.

Divide the dough into two pieces.  Keep the remaining dough covered while you work.  On a lightly floured surface, roll one half of the dough until super thin, about 1/16 to 1/8” thick.  This is where I was wishing for a pasta maker – it’s difficult to get this dough very thin!

Cut the dough into circles larger than the muffin cups.  I cut out a few different size circles, some with a pint glass, others slightly larger.  Spray the muffin pan with cooking spray.  Place each circle into the greased muffin pan, making sure to press the dough into the corners of each muffin cup.  Bake at 400° for 18 minutes, or until dough is cooked through and starting to brown.

Remove from oven, and immediately remove cannoli shells from muffin cups.  Cool the shells on a cooling rack until completely cooled.

For the vanilla filling:
2 lbs ricotta cheese, drained
1 2/3 cups confectioner’s sugar (more or less, depending on how sweet you want it), sifted
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or the beans from one vanilla bean
3 tablespoons finely chopped good quality chocolate of your choice

Note: This recipe made way too much filling for my 12 cupcake cannoli plus one cannoli sandwich.  If you don’t have a lot of cannoli shells, I would suggest halving the recipe.

To drain the ricotta, you will need a strainer, a bowl, and some cheesecloth.  Place the strainer over the bowl and line the strainer with cheesecloth.  Place the ricotta into the strainer and cover with plastic wrap.  Weigh it down with a can and leave it in the refrigerator for several hours to overnight.

With a mixer, beat ricotta until smooth and creamy.  Beat in confectioner’s sugar, cinnamon, vanilla.  Mix until smooth.  Transfer to a different bowl and stir in the chocolate.  Place in the refrigerator to chill.  The filling can be made up to 24 hours prior to filling the shells, as long as it stays covered in the fridge.

For the pumpkin filling:
1/2 cup ricotta cheese, drained (see instructions above)
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup canned pumpkin, drained like ricotta
3/4 cup confectioner’s sugar, sifted
1/2 to 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (to taste)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

With a mixer, beat ricotta and mascarpone until smooth and creamy.  Add pumpkin, confectioner’s sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and vanilla extract.  Mix until smooth.  Transfer to a different bowl, cover and place in the fridge to chill until it firms up a bit.  Again, you can leave this filling in the fridge for up to 24 hours prior to filling the shells.

To fill shells:
If you have a pastry bag, fit it with a circle or star tip.  Otherwise, just use a ziploc bag with the corner snipped off.  It’s easiest to fill the bag if you put it in a tall glass and fold the edges over the top of the glass.  Once the bag is filled, pipe the filling into the shells and garnish with chocolate, confectioner’s sugar, or anything else you desire.