angelobiondo.com

By: Angelo Biondo 

Cannoli are an all time favorite around Christmas and New Years for us.  It has been a family tradition for our family since before I was born, and that’s 70 plus years ago.  They are simple and fun to make once you get started, it’s the getting started that’s the hang-up.  You need the right tools (the form to wrap the dough around for deep frying) that might present a small problem. 

I remember my Mother and Grand-mother used to use bamboo forms about 6 inches long.  Bamboo was readily available in those days and my Father or Grand-father use to cut new forms every year.  They would cut about ½ dozen forms from the most uniform sections they could find in between the section dividers of the bamboo being careful to select pieces about ¾ inch in diameter. 

Today you might be able to find them in specialty cooking stores, or even order them on-line.  But, if your handy you shouldn’t have a problem making them yourself.  The commercial cannoli forms are made out of ¾ inch O.D. aluminum.  So if you can’t find them in the store, you can go to your local Home Depot or Lowe’s and buy a length of aluminum pipe.  You can cut the forms to size with a hacksaw, but I don’t recommend you do that.  It leaves the ends very jagged and generally crooked.  It you don’t have a tubing cutter, you can buy one in the tools or plumbing section of the same store for a reasonable price – usually way under $10.00.  If you don’t want to invest in the cutter, just have an associate cut several sections (6 or so) about 5 inches long.  

Now that you have the forms, you made it through the difficult part.  Don’t forget to buy some fine emery paper (medium grit) to sand the ends. Wash and dry well and you’re ready to go. 

Making the Shells (makes about 3 dozen)

Ingredients:

1¾ c flour

½ tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp butter, cold 

2 oz. dry white wine or bourbon

1 egg (separated) 

Directions: (for shells) 

• Place the flour, salt and sugar in a medium size bowl, mix well. 
• Cut the butter into pieces and mix into flour mixture with a fork.
• Push the flour mixture to the sides forming a pocket in the center. 
• Separate the egg and save the whites in a separate bowl until needed.  
• Dump the egg yolk and wine or bourbon in to the pocket. 
• Mix the wine and egg yolk together while starting to pull in some of the flour. 
• Mix the entire ingredients together with a fork until thoroughly mixed.
• Mix together by hand, kneading the dough for several minutes until thoroughly mixed. 
• Roll into ball, and refrigerate in a covered bowl for 30 minutes. 

The next step is very important to ensure a quality Crisp shell.  The shells should be uniform in size and a firm crisp consistency and a light golden brown in color when removed from the deep fryer. 

• Remove the dough and egg whites from the refrigerator. 
• Place the cannoli dough on a clean floured surface and roll out to about ¹/₁₆ inch thickness. The thinner you can roll it out the better.  My mother use to roll the dough out on waxed paper with a sheet of newspaper under the waxed paper.  She said when you can see the news print, then the dough is thin enough. 
• Set your deep fryer to about 350^o F, or fill a 4 quart sauce pan with about 1½ inches of peanut or vegetable oil and bring to frying temperature. 
• Mix the egg white with about a tsp. of water and mix. 
• Cut the shells into 3 x 4 inch oblongs sections, wrap around cannoli form sealing the joined edge with egg white mixture and. 
• Deep fry one or two shells at a time, for 20 to 30 seconds or until a light golden brown. The shells are very thin and will cook very fast.  Be careful not to let them burn. 
• Remove the shell from the fryer with a tongs and the aluminum form should slide right out, if not, while lightly holding the shell with the tongs (be careful not to clamp down to hard) tap the form on a hard surface (like the counter top) and the shell will slide off.  Let that form/s cool while you cook the next one or two. 
• Let the shells cool on a paper towel covered wire rack before carefully stacking them in an air-tight plastic container.  Place layer of paper towels in between each layer to help prevent breakage. 

The shells can be stored for at least 2 weeks and probably longer.  I know 2 weeks for sure because we have stored them for that long.  We’ve never got past the 2 weeks so your on your own from there.  We have bought shells in the generic section of a local super market and they keep them well over 2 weeks.  The generic shells are very thick to reduce breakage (I guess), and are no where as good as the home made.  They do work in a pinch however,  depending on how desperate you are.  

The true Italian filling for cannoli is made with ricotta cheese.  Fresh whole milk ricotta is firm and very smooth textured.  True Italian Cannoli filling is made only with fresh ricotta. If ricotta is not fresh it starts to get watery.  You can use this, it is still good – but you must drain it first by placing it in a cheese cloth or paper towel lined colander or strainer.  This usually takes several hours for it to drain, so you might want cover it and place it in the refrigerator over night.  But the best bet is to make sure it is fresh. If you are buying the ricotta from the refrigerated section look at the expiration date.  If you buy it at the deli’ section you can see the freshness, before you buy it.  One pound will generally make 12 to 18 cannoli depending on the size of the shell.  Two pounds of ricotta should be more than enough to fill the shells made from this recipe, however – if you don’t intend to use the entire batch of shells at one time don’t purchase the ricotta until you intend to use it.  Once you mix it – it will last, refrigerated for several days.  Make sure you mix it frequently as it will start to separate and become watery after a few days.  

The (basic) Filling

Ingredients:

2 lbs ricotta cheese (for entire batch of shells)

½ c confectioners’ sugar

2 tsp vanilla

¼ c mini chocolate chip (my grand-mother use to break chocolate bars into tiny bits.)

¼ c shredded coconut

Directions: 

• Place the fresh (or drained) ricotta in a bowl 
• Add the confectioner’s sugar and vanilla and mix well using an electric mixer 
• Add the mini chocolate chips and continue to mix. 
• Fill a plastic zip-lock bag with filling, cut a small corner off and squeeze into the shells.  Or you can just spoon it in like my mother and grand-mother use to before plastic zip-locks. 
• Mix a drop or two of green or red food coloring (Christmas colors) into the shredded coconut and dip the ends of the filled cannoli in the colored coconut and serve.
• Fill the cannoli no sooner than 15 to 30 minutes before serving for best results.  This will ensure the shell will remain crispy the closer you fill them to serving time the better.

There are some variations to the original (basic) cannoli filling that you may want to try.  I like the old fashioned basic recipe, but some people like the options:

Optional Ingredience: 

• ½ pint Heavy whipping cream  
• ¼ c nuts (walnuts, almonds, pistachios) your choice – finely chopped in a blender 
• ½ c candied fruit (your choice), my grand-mother used to use the candied cherries  

My Grand-mother use to add some chopped candied cherries to the filling.  This is good, but I prefer to leave them out.  Some non-Italian friends of mine add a ½ pint of whipped (heavy whipping cream), folded into the ricotta mixture.  The whipped cream gives it a nice light creamy texture but doesn’t seem to add to the flavor and the unused portion seems to break down quicker, so I don’t use that either.  And the last option is to use the chopped or crushed nuts in place of the shredded coconut.  We like the coconut around the Christmas holiday to add the color, but the nuts are good too.  

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