Makes 30 / Difficulty – Hard
Unmistakably Sicilian, cannoli vary from shop to shop, town to town, but along with tiramisù they are among the most famous desserts in the world. They are a little tricky to make but well worth the effort, as home made cannoli are an absolute wonder and so different from what you get in the UK.
To make the shells you’ll need some cannoli tubes which you can buy easily online.
Garnish with pistachios or candied fruit, but there is one golden rule… add the filling just before eating otherwise the dough will become too soft and ruin all your hard work.
Shopping list for 30 cannoli
For the shell dough
00 flour – 260 g
Lard, cold from the fridge – 30 g Salt – (up to) 1 tsp
White wine vinegar –10 g
Sugar –20 g
Bitter cocoa powder – 5 g
For the filling
Ricotta (drained for at least 1 night in the fridge) – 1 kg
Dark chocolate chips – 80 g
Sugar –130 g
To brush
2 Eggs, whisked
To cook
Seed oil – 1 litre
To garnish (choose what you like)
Candied cherries
Chopped pistachios
Powdered sugar
Candied orange
Method
To prepare the Sicilian cannoli, start with the wafer: pour the flour into a bowl, add sifted cocoa, sugar, salt, cold lard from the refrigerator. Then take the egg and beat it lightly, weigh 20g of the egg (keep the remaining to one side as we will use it to brush the cannoli later) and add it to bowl.
Then pour in the marsala and vinegar. Start kneading with your hands, transfer to a work surface and work it for about ten minutes until you get a homogeneous mixture. It will take some work because the mixture is quite dry. Cover with cling film and let it rest in the fridge for about 1 hour, then take it out of the fridge and leave it at room temperature for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, take the dough, divide it in half. Take one of the two halves, leaving the other well covered, and lightly flour both sides. Squeeze well with your hands and flatten as much as possible and then insert between the rollers of the machine. At first it might tear, don’t worry, just recompose and repeat.
As soon as it is very compact, fold the two ends inwards and pass again between the rollers starting from the widest thickness. Repeat 3-4 times.
As soon as it is smoother, close the pastry again but this time fold it only once and pass it between the rollers 3-4 more times. At this point fold the dough again, this time on the short side and run it through the rollers again. Gradually lower the number until you reach number 8 of the machine or the one that corresponds to a thickness of 0.5 mm. If the pastry gets too long divide it. All these steps will serve to make the dough more dilated, so that bubbles form during cooking.
Once you have obtained the dough of the indicated thickness, you can divide it in half for convenience. Trim the edges and add them to the other half of the dough you still have aside.
With a smooth blade pastry cutter, cut l0xl0 cm squares, then take each square of dough in your hand, slide your thumbs from the centre outwards to spread it slightly and delicately; in the middle place a steel cylinder so that it goes from one corner to the other.
Wrap a flap of dough on the cylinder, brush the other flap with the remaining egg before joining it with the other side. Repeat with the remaining dough. It is important that the cannoli are left to dry in the air for a while before cooking.
Heat the oil until it reaches a temperature of l80°c. Frying the cannoli one at a time, keep them immersed but make sure they don’t touch the bottom of the pot and burn. It will take less than 1 minute to cook, keep turning them over.
Drain the cannoli, using tongs and transfer them to a tray lined with kitchen paper. Let them cool before pulling out the cylinder; to do this press them slightly, squeeze the metal together and remove gently.
Let the shells cool completely in the meantime prepare the filling.
Sift the ricotta into a bowl, Pour in the sugar and work the mixture with a spatula. Then add the chocolate chips and mix again. Transfer to a pastry bag and stuff the cannoli. Only fill the cannoli prior to eating otherwise the shells will soften. Garnish with chopped pistachios, candied orange peels or cherries and sprinkle with icing sugar.
STORAGE
The cream can be stored in the refrigerator for a couple of days. Cannoli shells can be stored at room temperature for 4-S days, covered with a cloth.
ADVICE
To avoid waste. I make cannoli with squares of dough. If you prefer you can use a round pastry cutter, 10 cm, to get the classic shape.
