For Craig’s birthday last year, Aimee and Nate presented him with a beautiful Italian Cookbook all written in Italian. Their next gift to him was a scale with grams because all the Italian recipes used grams in measuring. This past Christmas they gave him cannoli forms. Do you see the trend?
Yes, we love Italian food. Yes, Craig loves to cook Italian food. And yes, Aimee and Nate would like us to cook them some more Italian food.
Yesterday and today; we started, prepared, assembled and made cannoli. This was a 2-step process. The cannoli dough requires at least 1 to 2 hours in the fridge. The candied orange peels – citrons take time in preparing. Because of the time involved we choose to do it over 2 days. The rolling, assembling, and frying of the cannoli takes some time so allow yourself about an hour at minimum in your preparation. We only own 4 forms, if you have more it will speed up the time necessary. The unfilled cannoli can be stored with paper towels in an airtight container for up to 1 month. The cannoli filling after preparation can be stored for 2 days in the fridge. Fill the cannoli shells right before eating.
I suggest you read through all the ingredients and directions before starting this recipe.
Ingredients: (for pastry)
3 Tbs Crisco butter flavored shortening
2 cups flour
2 Tbs granulated sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup grape juice
1 egg – slightly beaten
milk
vegetable oil for frying
Ingredients: (for filling)
2 cups Ricotta cheese – well drained
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup to 1 cup powdered sugar (to taste)
1/2 cup chopped finely semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped candied orange citron
Ingredients: (for candied orange citron)
1 cup orange peel
water
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
additional sugar for rolling peels in
Directions for Cannoli (pastry)
1) Cut shortening into flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs.
2) Fold in sugar and cinnamon.
3) Gradually add grape juice, a few drops at a time.
4) Add egg.
5) Mix until pastry holds together. ( A few more drops of grape juice might be needed)
6) Form into a ball, cover, refrigerated 1 to 2 hours or overnight.
7) Divide dough into quarters.
8) On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough as thin as possible. (about the thickness of a time)
9) Cut into an oval shape about 4 or 5 inches long and about the width plus a little over lap of your cannoli forms.
10) Loosely wrap each oval piece around the form. Seal the edges with a dab of milk.
11) Deep fry in vegetable oil at 400 degrees. Remove from oil once golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes. (Watch closely, yours might be faster)
12) Drain on paper towels. Let cool briefly before removing forms.
13) Let cannoli cool completely before filling.
14) Repeat steps 8 – 13 until you have used all your dough. Cannoli shells can be stored in a cool airtight spot with a paper towel up to 2 months.
Directions for candied orange citron
1) Wash oranges and dry with paper towel.
2) Cut oranges into quarters and peel with a sharp knife.
3) Cut orange peels into 1/4 strips.
4) Place peel strips in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil over high high, then reduce heat and let simmer for 10 minutes. Drain. Repeat this process 2 more times.
5) In another saucepan, heat sugar and 1/4 cup water over high heat until boiling.
6) Place peel in sugar mixture, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes, until sugar is dissolved.
7) Remove peel with a slotted spoon.
8) Roll in additional sugar to coat.
9) Place on wire rack to cool overnight.
Directions for Ricotta Filling
1) Mix together all the ingredients (the chocolate will discolor the ricotta cheese with a brown tint.)
2) Store in refrigerator until ready to fill shells.
3) Fill shells just before serving (the filling softens the shells.)
4) Dust with additional powdered sugar.
5) Save any leftover filling in the fridge for up to 2 days.
* Save the orange syrup in the fridge to use like honey or syrup on french toast, pancakes or waffles.
* Save the orange sugar in an airtight container to sprinkle on toast, pancakes, crepes, or waffles.
mäklare örebro says
Hey very nice blog!! Man .. Beautiful .. Amazing .. I’ll bookmark your blog and take the feeds also…I’m happy to find numerous useful info here in the post, we need work out more strategies in this regard, thanks for sharing. .
Craig says
Sometimes the journey is half the fun. . .
aimeeberrett says
This looks so delicious, mom! I want to eat them now!
Erika says
I’ve never made cannoli but this looks so fun! I’ve made candied orange peel before for some Lebkucken and it was delicious!
aimeeberrett says
Erika, what’s your lebkuchen recipe?