On 4/3/2011 3:44 PM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
> It has been a while, but we decided to make these again.
>
>
> Cannoli Alla Siciliana
>
> Ingredients:
> Pastry
> 1 cup flour
> 1/4 teaspoon salt
> 1 scant Tablespoon sugar
> 1 Tablespoon soft unsalted butter
> 1/4 cup white wine
>
> Vegetable oil for frying
>
> Filling
> 2 cups ricotta
> 1 cup whipped heavy cream
> 3 Tablespoons sugar (or more if you wish)
> 2 Tablespoons candied fruit, or 3 Tablespoons cocoa and 2 Tablespoons
> chocolate bits (Jimmies) or 2 Tablespoons finely chopped nuts.
> 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
>
> Confectioner's sugar
>
> Pastry: Place the flour in a mound on a pastry board or counter. Make a
> well in the center, and put in kthe salt, sugarm and dabs of the soft
> butter. Add the wine, and with a fork start stirring in the center. Keep
> on until most of the flour has been absorbed, and you have a paste yyou
> can work with your hands.
>
> Knead the paste until it is smooth and has picked up almost all the
> remaining flour. Roll it out no thicker than a noodle, and cut it into 3
> 1/2" X 3 1/2" squares, if you are using 5-inch-long, 1-inch-diameter
> cannoli forms. The diagonal of the squares should not be longer than the
> forms, so adjust the size of the squares to the length of the forms.
>
> Place the cannoli forms diagonally on the squares. Wrap the pastry
> around the forms, 1 corner over the other, and press the corners to hold
> them together. If the corners don't stick with pressure, mositen a
> finger with water, apply it to the contact point, and press again.
>
> Cover the bottom of a frying pan with about 3/4 inch of vegetable oil
> and heat it to 375°. If you don't have a thermometer, drop a bit of
> dough in. If it immediately starts to blister and turn a toast color,
> the temperature is right. Because connoli cook very fast and swell in
> size during the process, you may find 3 is a good number to cook at a
> time. Put them in the hot oil, turning them carefully when one side is
> done. Remove them as soon as they have become crisp, a uniform toast
> color, and rather blistered all round. The forms, naturally, get
> terribly hot: a pointed pliers is the easiest tool with which to lift
> them out of the pan. Hold the form with the pliers and give a gentle
> push with a fork to slip the fried cannolo off the form. Drain the
> cannoli on paper towels. Put the forms aside to cool. When cooled,
> rewrap, and continue frying until all are done.
>
> Cannoli, when cooked and left unfilled, will keep crisp a day or so in a
> tin or a dry place.
>
> If you want to make more than 18 cannoli, the recipe doubles easily using
>
> 2 cups of flour
> 1/2 teaspoon salt
> 1 1/2 Tablespoons sugar
> 2 tablespoons soft unsalted butter
> 2/3 cups of white wine.
>
> If you are rolling on a pasta machine, which is ideal for this
> particular dough, start at the highest number and bring it down to #3.
>
> Filling: Put the ricotta in a bowl and fold in the whipped cream, adding
> the sugar as you fold. Chop the chocolate bits or nuts very fine and
> fold all but about a teaspoonful. Add the vanilla.
>
> Using a spatula or a broad knife, fill the cannoli first from one end
> and then from the other. Press the filling in gently to make sure the
> center is full. Scrape each end to smooth out the cream and decorate the
> ends by dipping them in the remaining chocolate bits or nuts.
>
> The cannoli should not be filled too long before serving, as that
> softens the pastry. The filling, however, can be chilled, and both parts
> of this elegant dessert can be made ahead of time and assembled shortly
> before the meal.
>
> Dust with confectioner's sugar.
>
>
> SOURCE: The Romagnolis' Table
>
>
>
>
I have made cannoli with marsala wine, not white wine. I'm going to give
your recipe a try the next time I decide to make it.

Do you drain your ricotta cheese overnight? I put it in a strainer over
a bowl in the fridge overnight. I think it makes the cheese less wet
and the cannoli outsides stay crispier longer. I also never heard of
mixing the whipping cream with the cheese. Interesting. I just mix my
cheese with powdered sugar and a little vanilla and teeny pieces of
chocolate.

I never actually had a recipe for the cheese filling. The Sicilian
grandmothers on my block taught me to make them when I was a kid.

--
Janet Wilder
Way-the-heck-south Texas
Spelling doesn't count. Cooking does.