Daring Bakers, November 2009 - Cannoli

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: As Compiled by Artie Bucco 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.

My notes: It was nice, but noting special. Maybe I should have flattened the dough more, or maybe I fried them too long, but I just feel like something's missing. Maybe I created too high expectations looking at Tony Soprano devouring them. Anyway, it's something I'll definitely give another try.

Lidisano’s Cannoli Shells

250 g flour
2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp white wine vinegar
about 125 ml any wine you have on hand
1 large egg white

Place all of the ingredients except wine and the egg white in a bowl. Add a little wine and start kneading. Keep adding more wine enough to make soft dough. To me quantity of the wine from the recipe was enough. Shape dough into a ball, oil it and place in a freezer bag. Keep in the fridge overnight.

The next day, flatten the dough to the 2-3 mm thickness. Cut out circles with a diameter that is equal or smaller than the length of your cannoli forms. Wrap the dough circles around oiled cannoli forms using egg white as a glue (see instructions on how to do that on Lisa Michele's post). Deep fry in a lot of oil until they're golden.

When they cool, separate them from the forms and dip the edges into melted chocolate then, while chocolate is still warm, dip it into some ground nuts, candies or anything you like. Then, fill them with the filling of your choice. I used Chruncy Filling from Torte Egyptian recipe.