Think of the times that you have gone to an Italian restaurant, looked over a menu, spotted a Cannoli and looked at the price, and thought, “Holy Cannoli! That’s one expensive dessert!”
Well, let me tell you how much time that goes into making the Cannoli and you will appreciate it and the amount that it costs. I took a class on Cannoli making with my daughter, Kate, at my local Community College. The fee to register for the class was $39.00. We would learn how to make the dough and the filling. We needed to bring along an apron, measuring spoons, measuring cups, a bowl, and a spatula. That sounded easy enough.
The first thing that we learned was that the instructor had bought the ricotta cheese and wrapped it in cheesecloth and put it into a drainer in her refrigerator for three days. The ricotta needed to be very dry, and it was.
The filling was divided into two bowls and then some powdered sugar was added and some imitation vanilla and that was stirred up until it was light and fluffy. Then semi sweet, mini chocolate chips were added to one mixture. This is the American version of the Cannoli filling. In the other bowl, the powdered sugar was added, imitation vanilla, and finely chopped citron. This is the Italian version. Each bowl was set aside.
Each person worked on their Cannoli dough. This wasn’t easy. For the dough, flour is needed, and a small amount of sugar, cinnamon, water and vinegar. The vinegar makes the bubbly effect to the Cannoli shells when it is fried in a pot of vegetable oil.
As I said, mixing the dough is the hardest part and it takes a lot of strength to knead it. Knead it we did…for about one hour. I can honestly say that my fingers, the palm of my hands, and my wrists were sore. As a matter of fact, they are still sore.
Eventually, when the dough was done, we rolled it into a smooth ball. We cut pieces of the dough, and rolled it three times in a pasta maker, to be wide and thin. When that was completed, the dough was cut into a square. The metal Cannoli rods were sprayed with Pam for the first use. The square was wrapped on the rod like a triangle. To keep the seam together, we dipped a finger into egg yolk and wiped it across the seam. The rod with the dough was put into the bubbling oil and taken out when it was golden brown. The shell would slip off the rod and the same process would be used until all the dough was gone. The dough can be kept wrapped in a refrigerator for up to three days.
My mother-in-law used to make these and I think she added whiskey to the dough to make it crisp. Her filling was more of a custard cream which she put pistachios at each end. Nothing like a good homemade cannoli no matter what the filling!!
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