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Finally, Sonia shows us the recipe for the famous Sicilian cannoli, crispy shells filled with a tempting ricotta filling… try and make them at home!
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Today we’ll hop over to Sicily to prepare one of the best and famous desserts of this amazing island: the cannoli. It’s very hard to resist this delicacy made of a crispy shell filled with a tempting ricotta cream filling. They’re not difficult to make at home, just get hold of the special metal tubes. Let’s see together what ingredients we’ll need:
For the cannoli shells, we’ll have:
• 2 cups (250 g) of flour
• 2 tbsp (30 g) of white-wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp (30 g) of Marsala wine
• ¼ cup (30 g) of powdered sugar
• 1 tsp of powdered cinnamon
• 1 tsp of salt
• 1 tsp of coffee powder • 1 tbsp (5 g) of unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 medium egg weighing about 1,8 oz out of the shell / ¼ cup (50 g) of lard
with regard to the filling, we’ll have:
• 3 cups (750 g) of sheep ricotta cheese
• 2/3 cup (75 g) of dark chocolate chips
• 1 ½ cups (300 g) of sugar / candied cherries for garnishing
• peanut seed oil for frying or, according to tradition, lard
Let’s go prepare the Sicilian cannoli:
First of all, put the ricotta cheese in a strainer to drain and let it stay in the fridge. In a bowl sift the flour, add the salt and sift all the other powders; then add the lard, the egg, and the liquids, but keep in mind that the resulting dough should be soft and firm, therefore you may not need to use all the liquids, it depends a lot on how much moisture is absorbed in the flour you’re using.
Now knead, a lightly floured worktop will be fine, until you reach this consistency, as you can see it’s a little bit harder than bread dough. Now wrap in cling film… and let it rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
Now move on to the cream for the filling, so put the well-drained ricotta cheese in a bowl… mix a little bit, then add the sugar. Mix just enough to blend the ingredients, then cover with cling film and put in the fridge for at least half an hour.
Place a very fine sieve over a bowl, add the ricotta and sugar mixture… and press down with a small spatula … in this way you’ll get a very smooth cream, then add the chocolate chips, mix everything, cover the bowl with cling film and keep in the fridge.
Now take the dough for the cannoli shells out of the fridge and roll it out to a sheet about 1/10 inch (1-2 mm) thick, like this. At this point, with a round cookie cutter about 3 ½ inches (9 cm) in diameter, cut out a circle… in this way… now stretch it into an oval… take one of the tubes for the shells… brush with egg white to pinch the ends together… and here is the first shell. Continue this way with all the dough, if you prefer you can cut out a diamond shape instead of a circle, so take the dough and do the same… brush with egg white… overlap… and the shell is ready.
Now move on to frying the shells: the oil is at 340°-350°F (170°-180°C), fry two at a time, no more or the oil will cool down and you won’t get the right result.
Once the shells have completely cooled, remove the metal tube. Now the shells are ready to be filled: remember to fill them only at the moment of serving, because then they won’t be crispy anymore. At this point, take the cream… and fill the shell using a pastry bag. Actually, the true cannoli filling has no chocolate chips, but candied citron and orange. Now garnish with a half candied cherry, or with candied orange zest, and the cannolo is ready.
Before serving your cannoli, sprinkle generously with powdered sugar and, if you need to store them, keep in the fridge in a sealed glass container. From Sonia and Giallozafferano, bye and see you next video recipe.