If you are fan of movies or television series, this popular Sicilian sweet will not be unknown to you. They have appeared with its own entity in The Godfather of Coppola and has also been named in The Sopranos, so unfortunately to many it will sound inextricably linked to the mafia plots.
Cannolo means "small tube" and cannoli is the plural, it is say, "small tubes".
Basically it is a pasta tube filled with sweetened sheep ricotta cheese, filling that can decorated at their ends with candied fruits, chocolate pearls, cherries in syrup etc
The recipe is simple, although you need a metal tube that shapes the dough and supports frying temperature. You can find them in any hardware or household kitchen shops named as metal tubes for cannoli.
INGREDIENTS
for the dough
- 250 grams (9 oz) of flour
- 30 grams (1 oz) of sugar
- 30 grams (1 oz) of lard
- 1 egg
- 50 ml (a quarter of a cup) of wine such as Port, Sherry or Marsala
- 1 teaspoon of vinegar
- The zest of the peel of an orange
- 1 additional egg yolk
- Half a teaspoon of cinnamon powder
- 1 pinch of salt
- Sunflower, corn or canola oil for frying
For the filling
- 800 grams (1.8 lbs) of white ricotta cheese, preferably of sheep (cottage cheese)
- 300 grams (11 oz) of icing sugar
For decoration (optional)
- Cherries, chocolate pearls, fruit in syrup, etc.
First we are going to mix the flour with the cinnamon sifting them so there are no lumps.
We cut the lard into small pieces and mix it.
We add the icing sugar and grated orange peel.
Add the egg and the pinch of salt dissolved in the vinegar. Then we pour the Port, the wine from Sherry or Marsala, whichever you have been able to find.
Knead well (if you have a mixer or robot with this function, it's time to use it). you will get one elastic and consistent dough that must be stored in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
Once the time has elapsed, we take out the dough and work it with the roller flattening it until it reaches a thickness of about 1.5mm (0.06 inches). Then we make circles of about 10 cm (4 inches) in diameter.
It's time to use the metallic tubes. Wrap the metal tubes with the paste and close the ends, painting them with the egg yolk.
Heat the sunflower oil to about 180 degrees (360 F) and we gently slide the cannoli in the hot oil WITH THE MOLD TUBE still in the center to fry them.
Let fry until golden brown.
Due to the effect of lard bubbles are formed that are sometimes too large, therefore it is advisable to prick them with a fork. Anyway these bubbles are much appreciated, so just you must burst the ones that, due to their size, deform the cannoli.
They are removed from the oil and left to rest on absorbent paper.
Do not remove the tube until they are at room temperature. For this reason it is convenient to get a big number of metal tubes to make all the cannoli's in one shot. Otherwise you have to wait, and that's not practical.
To make the filling, simply mix the cottage cheese with the icing sugar. It is preferable to work with the mixer.
When we have a homogeneous and smooth dough, we inject it into the canoli with a pastry bag.
The ends are usually decorated, if you like, with cherries, nuts, candied fruit, chocolate noodles or whatever you want, it's a matter of imagination.