Sicilian Cannoli are Italian dessert pastries that are marked by a sweet ricotta cheese filling piped into a light and crispy ‘tubular’ shell or ‘crust’. The shells are characteristically ‘blistered’ and remind me of a Samosa pastry.
The pastry shells can be purchased at almost any major grocery, or if you are a little more adventurous, and/or looking for authenticity all around, you can make your own. In Italian, ‘Cannoli’ is the plural of ‘Cannolo’ which loosely translated means ‘hollow tube’. Speaking of which, if you were to go to Tim Horton’s and order a ‘panini’ this technically is the plural of ‘panino’. This is one of those ‘grinding-nails-on-a-chalkboard thing’ that gets to me when hear people say “I will have one cannoli or I’ll have a pannini”. Its actually one “Cannolo” or one “Panino” ~ sorry Timmies….
Back to ‘tubular shapes’…in order to form the shells, you will require tubular forms (usually made of steel or wood) to wrap the pastry around in order to bake or fry them. One might ask ‘but won’t wood forms burn during the cook’? No, not really. The oil in the fryer should be about 350-360F at its hottest, and wood combusts above 410deg F.
Ingredients for Shells:
- 2 cups flour, plus extra for dusting if needed
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1 tsp sugar
- Pinch salt
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 1/4 cup water
- Oil for deep frying
Directions for Shells:
To make sicilian cannoli shells:
In large bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa, and salt, sugar and cut in the butter until evenly blended. Then gradually work in the wine and water to form a compact dough patty. Cover the dough in plastic and refrigerate for 1 hour. On a lightly-floured surface, roll out the dough to just less than 1/8-inch thickness. Using a decent size drinking glass with floured rim, cut out circles and cover. Re-roll the scrap dough as above and form more circles.
In a deep fryer or heavy-bottomed saucepan, heat the oil to 350 degrees F. Wrap each circle around a tubular form, sealing the two edges that overlap with a little water by wetting and by pressing together. Carefully immerse a few shells at a time, into the hot oil and fry until golden and the skins blister. Drain the shells on paper towels, let cool and remove the molds from the cannoli.
For the Filling:
The Cannoli filling is a traditional one. One of the major issues with the filling for this dessert is that it can often be runny and not firm enough to stay compact inside the shell. Please refrain from adding more sugar to the mix if you find it is runny. Extra powdered sugar will only make matters worse. It will give you an overly sweet and pasty runny mix. To have a nice fluffy cream filling, the first key to this is to ensure the Ricotta has been completely drained of as much moisture as possible. Its best to use ricotta that requires cutting in the specialty cheese section at the supermarket – not the one in the plastic container. Alternately, this can be done by putting a paper towel at the bottom of a collander and allowing the ricotta to sit for some time. The second key is to use granulated sugar in proportion to powdered sugar which will provide the mixture with some firmness. Lastly, the prepared semolina will impart more firmness, and in addition give it a mild citrus flavour as well.
Prepare Orange Cinnamon Semolina in advance:
For the Semolina you will need:
- 2 cups of boiling water
- ~ 3/4 cup uncooked duram semolina
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 2 tbsp honey
- 1 whole orange peel
In a saucepan, bring the water to a hard boil. Add the orange peel, cinnamon sticks and honey. Let boil until water takes on a tea stained tint and aroma. Remove the peels and sticks then gradually stir in the semolina and continuously whisk the mixture until cooked ~ about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool. Then put in refrigerator until ready to use (can be made the day ahead).
For the Cheese Filling:
- 1kg Ricotta Cheese (International style – best to use sheep’s milk ricotta)
- 1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup of icing sugar
- 1 cup of prepared orange cinnamon semolina
- 1 tsp vanilla
Directions for the filling:
In a stand mixer on medium to low speed, mix the ricotta and sugar by gradually adding the sugar a little at a time. add in the vanilla and then finally incorporate the semolina and mix until smooth. I find its best to then place the mixture in a tupper-ware and store in the fridge until just before ready to serve. This way, the shells remain nice and crunchy. When you are ready to prepare your tray, load a cake decorating piping bag or cookie press gun with the ricotta mix and pipe into the shells. Decorate the ends with candied fruit (authentic sicilian cannoli), chocolate chips, or in this case – cadbury mini eggs. Dust with powdered sugar (optional) and place in muffin papers on tray.
Enjoy!…