Corageous Cannolis

Sorry we're a bit late on posting this month! While Erica and spent a lovely (and relaxing weekend) down in Big Sur making cannolis in early November, finals have begun to take their toll and posting fell below outlining and writing papers on my to do list. But as procrastination has now set in, here we go....

I must confess, I found this dough rather odd. It smelled of playdough



and was near impossible to roll out. Luckily for us, we had some manly help with both the rolling


and the frying. My mother looked scared when I brought the fire extinguisher into the kitchen "just in case," but after many years of frying fish for Christmas Eve, my father appeared a seasoned pro at frying up the cannolis.


Finding a cannoli mold was a challenge. I looked for them at the store, but the not-so-helpful man at Safeway looked v. confused when I asked where in the baking section I might be able to find one. So we resorted to the traditional method instead and used a sawed off section of dowel. It worked fairly well, though they did smell a bit like cedar.


And out the came! We did get a blistery outside, though I think we should have rolled the dough a bit thinner - these shells were thicker and heavier than cannolis I've had in the past (Erica and I have both lived in Boston, with a pretty high bar set by Mike's Pastries in the North End).

We made both a "traditional" filling


and a seasonal pumpkin filling.

Not quite mini chocolate chips, but pretty enough!


Given that we didn't burn the kitchen down, however, I'll call this one a rousing success! And now, back to the grindstone for two weeks of finals. We'll be back in December, hopefully for a dessert that goes well with eggnog and mulled wine!

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 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.