Cannoli

• servings: 30-40
• active time: 2 hours
• total time: 4 hours plus overnight

Ingredients

The Shells

This recipe makes about 45 small to medium sized shells.

Bottle of vegetable oil or other neutral high-heat oil.

1.5 cups of all purpose Flour

.5 tsp cinnamon powder

1.5 tsp cocoa powder

2 tbsp white sugar

.5 tsp salt

3 tbsp cubed and chilled butter

2 tbsp Marsala

.5 tsp white vinegar

.25 cup of water

1 egg (for the wash)

The Cannoli Cream

2 16 oz tubs of ricotta, drained (see note)

1 cup of powdered sugar, plus more to taste

1.5 tsp vanilla

Zest of medium-large orange

Directions

In a stand mixer, combine all of the dry ingredients and mix well. Add in wet ingredients (except the egg) and continue to blend for a few minutes. Mixture may be somewhat crumbly. Remove from the bowl and pour out onto a large working surface.

Knead with your hands for 5 - 10 minutes until you have a mostly smooth and homogenous ball of dough. Wrap in plastic wrap and let rest at room temperature for 1 hour.

While the dough rests, make your filling. Use 1.5 cups of the drained ricotta and 1.5 cups of the mascarpone, though you can adjust the balance as desired. Put that in the bowl of a stand mixer or any bowl with your hand mixer. Add the zest and the vanilla, if using, and at least half a cup of your sugar. Best and then taste, adding sugar as desired. If you use the whole cup and it still isn’t sweet enough, you can add as much as another 1/3 cup. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Heat a neutral, high heat oil to 350F in a deep pot or fryer. It’s about a whole bottle of vegetable oil.

Unwrap dough and cut into about 5 smaller pieces. Flour the dough balls gently. Pass each ball through the pasta maker, going from the widest setting down about 6 settings. Be slow and methodical, and don’t skip any steps. Note: If dough wrinkles, dust with flour before each roll.

Lay each sheet of dough out on your work surface and gently flour again. Using your circular punch out form, cut circles and save all of the excess dough which you’ll use for one final pass through the pasta maker. Note: We used the thick, blunt side of the cutter for it to be big enough. We also rolled to 8 but could leave it thicker.

Carefully and tightly wrap/roll each cut circle around the cannoli tube, and seal the edge with your egg wash. Be extremely careful not to let egg get all over the place. Avoid getting the egg on the cannoli tube or the dough will end up sticking to the tube while frying. Clean up any egg that gets on your work surface.

When the oil temperature has reached 350F, drop each tube into the oil and fry until golden. Using tongs, turn the cannoli in the oil so they cook evenly. This should take only about 1 minute. Note: We preferred 30 seconds.

Transfer to a rack lined with paper towels and carefully slide the shells off of the tubes while it’s still hot. You’ll want to use more paper towels so you don’t burn your fingers.

The tubes should be wiped down, and chilled in the refrigerator for just 1 - 2 minutes before starting the next round of shells (or just air-cooled).

Once the shells have completely cooled you can start filling the cannoli. Using the piping bag, fill each shell starting with the center and working outwards. Nothing worse than a cannoli with a big empty pocket of air in the middle. Once completely filled, you can garnish with whatever you like. Traditional toppings include candied fruit, crushed pistachio, or chocolate chips. When the cannoli are all dressed up and ready to go, you can give them all a final dusting of confectioner’s sugar. They should be eaten fresh as they start to lose their textural appeal if they sit around too long and get soggy.

Notes

The night before, drain ricotta. Double-line a strainer with cheesecloth, place strainer over a deep enough bowl that your ricotta won’t sit in its own water, and dump in the ricotta. Fold cheesecloth over the top, place a heavy Pyrex bowl atop it and press it a bit; add more things inside to weigh it down. Cover as best you can and place in fridge for 8 hours/overnight.

We used Murray’s ricotta and it didn’t have much liquid.