Daring Bakers: November

I am very late with my Daring Bakers post this month, and not because I left the cooking part until the last minute as I usually do! I had planned a whirlwind weekend away, not realizing that the reveal date this month fell smack in the middle of it. So this is just a short post now that I'm home, slipping in just before the end of November. My coffee guy makes a great cannoli. Earth-shatteringly crispy with an amazing tiramisu flavoured custard, or if you ask real nicely, he'll do half tiramisu and half ricotta. I was kind of excited about this challenge because it was a new technique that I had never tried before and there are infinite possibilities as to flavour combinations.

It took a few attempts at frying before I actually got cannoli I was happy with. I tried to make some in the traditional shape using a pasta cannelloni tube to shape them, but the only cannelloni I found had ridges in the sides and were therefore almost impossible to remove. The photo above is the only one that actually turned out. The rest I made into cone shapes using some small metal cones that my parents brought back with them from the restaurant they owned twenty years ago. These were much more successful, once I got the hang of it. Regulating the oil temperature was a little difficult, but very important to getting beautiful cannoli.



I filled some with a white chocolate and orange blossom cream, with a sprinkling of pistachio nuts, which was delicious and delicately flavoured, and really worked well. I made a gingerbread ice cream for the cannoli cones, which was pretty amazing. I flavoured it with golden syrup, ginger and black pepper, but I would like to go back and really get the recipe perfect before I share it here, hopefully just in time for Christmas. And in hindsight, a 43°C day was probably not the best time to try and photograph ice cream. Although this month didn't involve any baking at all, I quite enjoyed this new challenge.

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.

Cannoli

• 2 cups plain flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
• 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
• ½ cup white or red wine
• 1 egg white
• Vegetable oil, for deep frying

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer or food processor, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, cinnamon and salt. Sir in the oil, vinegar and enough of the wine to make a soft dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and well blended, about 2 minutes. Shape the dough into a ball, cover with plastic and let rest in the fridge from 2 hours to overnight.
2. Cut the dough into two pieces. Keep the remaining dough covered while you work. Lightly flour a large work surface and roll the dough until super thin. I used a pasta maker to roll the dough. Cut out circles of dough (your choice of size) and roll the cut circle into an oval.
3. Oil the outside of the cannoli tubes. Roll a dough oval from the long side around each tube and dab a little egg white where the edges overlap. Press well to seal and set aside to let the egg white dry a little.
4. In a deep heavy saucepan, pour enough oil to reach a depth of 3 inches. Heat the oil to 190°C (375°F) on a deep fry thermometer. Have a tray lined with paper towels ready.
5. Carefully lower a few of the canola tubes into the hot oil. Do not crowd the pan. Fry the shells until golden, about 2 minutes, turning them so that they brown evenly.
6. Lift the cannoli out of the oil with slotted spoon. Using tongs, grasp the cannoli tube at one end. Very carefully remove the cannoli tube with the open sides straight up and down so that the oil flows back into the pan. Place the tube on paper towels or bags to drain. Repeat with the remaining tubes. While they are still hot, grasp the tubes with a potholder and pull the cannoli shells off the tubes with a pair of tongs, or with your hand protected by an oven mitt or towel.
7. Let the shells cool completely on the paper towels. Place shells on cooling rack until ready to fill.
8. Repeat making and frying the shells with the remaining dough. If you are reusing the cannoli tubes, let them cool before wrapping them in the dough.

White Chocolate and Orange Blossom Cream
• 180g white chocolate, chopped
• 300g pouring cream
• 1 teaspoon orange blossom water
• Chopped Pistachios, to garnish

1. Place white chocolate, 100ml of cream and orange blossom water into a small saucepan and heat, stirring until chocolate has melted. Allow to cool completely.
2. Whip the remaining cream to soft peaks. Fold the chocolate mixture into the whipped cream with a spatula and refrigerate if not firm enough to pipe.
3. Pipe mixture into cannoli and sprinkle with chopped pistachios. Dust with icing sugar, if desired and serve immediately.