Mom’s Cannoli
Yield: 24 Servings
Shells:
3 Cups Flour
1/4 Teaspoon Cinnamon
3/4 Cup Dry Red Wine
2 Tablespoons Sugar
2 Tablespoons Shortening
2 Quarts Light Oil
Mix flour, cinnamon, and sugar. Mix in shortening as you would mix for pie, making a crumbly mixture, then add wine slowly until a ball is formed. Knead the dough just enough to achieve an elastic consistency. Excessive kneading will cause the pastry to become tough. Place dough on a floured cloth and let it rest for 15 minutes. Meanwhile begin to heat the oil to 350 degrees in large pot. After dough has rested, take a piece of dough the size of a walnut and roll in 5-inch circle and wrap around cannoli cylinder and secure end with egg white. Fry for a few minutes till a nice brown color. Remove with a slotted spoon and let cool on many layers of paper towel to absorb excess oil. Don’t be dismayed if the first few shells come undone in the oil-just press the dough closing a littler more tightly. Store the shells in a cookie tin in a cool dry place.
Filling:
2 pounds ricotta
1/2 pint heavy cream, whipped
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 almond Hershey bar, grated (small)
Some Chopped Pistachio Nuts (optional)
Mix Ricotta, vanilla grated Hershey, and sugar till smooth. Whip up heavy cream and fold into Ricotta mixture. Fill cannoli shells with a pastry bag only when ready to serve. Dip ends of filled cannoli in chopped pistachio nuts, if desired
Try using real Cinnamon in your recipe and reduce on the sugar. You could also avoid the toxic effects of Coumarin in Cassia.
The Cinnamon that we buy in the US is actually Cassia which could be toxic.
Please click the link under my name to read more…
Thank you for this tip.
Re: the cinnamon: For years, my nose and taste buds have known that not all cinnamon is created equal, yet I’ve found scant literature on what is the best. Can you enlighten us further as to which cinnamon (or cassia) the major producers are selling in supermarkets? Although your site describes how to differentiate between cassia (inferior cinnamon substitute) and real cinnamon in the whole form, it doesn’t tell us the same for ground cinnamon.
You didn’t explain why the consumer should care about coumarin consumption. Here is what I found (let me know if you concur):
Coumarin is a naturally-occurring compound found in several plants, cinnamon and cassia included. It’s not a huge theat to humans, but it can be toxic to liver and kidney and the FDA banned it as a food additive in the US in 1978. But the tobacco companies didn’t stop adding it as an adulterant to cigarettes until 1997.
I stopped eating cinnamon buns with my coffee because the cinnamon numbed my tongue so that I could not even savor a strong flavor such as coffee. I wonder if this overly numbing sensation is the inferior cassia, or just natural to some cinnamons? Furthermore, I see that herbalists consider cinnamon beneficial to treating pimples, skin inefections, breath, and weight loss.
Re: the sugar in the recipe, I’ll soon be posting an alternate cannoli recipe that I prefer. It uses a cornstarch pudding.
more soon.
Hi Camille
What is sold in the USA as Cinnamon is actually Cassia which has 1250 times more coumarin than Ceylon Cinnamon.
Please click the link under my name to read what the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment has to say about Coumarin