Monday, November 30, 2009

Disaster Baking with Cannoli

Prior to my first Daring Baker's challenge, I didn't have a strong
opinion on cannoli. I would have to say that has changed in the last month.

Due to a crazy month, I put the challenge off until this past weekend. As the husband was off watching football at a friend's house, I prepped the dough, let it rest in the fridge, then rolled the dough out. Following the instructions and information posted by lisamichele, I rolled the dough to the thickness of 1/16th of an inch.

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Using a 3 1/2 inch circle cookie cutter, I cut circles out of the dough. I used standard cannoli forms, 6 inches long, greased them with extra vegetable oil, and then rolled the dough around the forms. 

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After cutting the dough out, I rolled the circles a little thinner, just slightly.

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I used standard cannoli forms, 6 inches long, greased them with extra vegetable oil, and then rolled the dough around the forms. 

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The directions said to pour enough oil in a sturdy pot to have oil 3
inches deep. What I later found out was from the hubby was that the large, heavy-bottomed soup pot was not the appropriate pot to fry cannoli. Maybe if I had used a more appropriate pot, my Saturday might have ended better.  So, with such a large pot, I used about 4 1/2 quarts of oil to get the 3 inches, instead of the suggested 2 quarts.

As I started to fry the cannoli, I quickly realized they were frying
super fast. So the first couple cannoli were more of a dark golden
than a nice light gold color. I was getting the hang of it, 7 done and
7 to go. Then my horrible clumsiness struck, a style of baking I call 'Disaster Baking'.  Cheap bamboo tongs aren't advised to pull hot, oily metal tubes out of a pot of extremely hot frying oil. I learned this the hard way, after decently burning myself on the wrist. Damn it hurt!

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The fun burn took my focus away from the cannoli project, and brought it to how in retrospect, I should have gone about the project differently. Too late! But I still finished the challenge, making a basic ricotta filling. I was originally going to make a savory Mexican chickpea filling, topping it will cheddar cheese, but that was nixed.

I would have to say, I am currently underwhelmed by cannoli. For the effort, I don't think the are worth it. I think many other desserts are better, and easier to execute without such pain. I might try it again in the distant future, who knows.   And do you notice the different looking canola? It was neglected in the hot oil as I held my hand under cold water until hubby got home to fix the problem I had gotten myself into.

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4 comments:

  1. Uhmmmm I hope the burn is better and yes bamboo tongs might not be the best... but the finished cannoli does look delicious and well blistered and at least you have this dessert under your belt (so to spreak). Cheers from Audax in Australia.

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  2. Aww, dang..I'm so sorry you burnt yourself (I did too, a nice red slash across my inner right ewwrist, attractive..lol), but great looking cannoli! The burnt one is kind of funny..like the 'black sheep' of your cannoli family LOL I'm sorry the taste was just 'eh' for you, but hey, you did it, you now know how to make them, and sometime in the future, you may want to make them again, and actually like them better. That's what being a Daring Baker is all about :0 Thanks so much for takig part in my cha;;enge, and hope your boo boo gets better soon!

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  3. I love all the pictures! The last one should be of a person on fire though, you know, to complete the theme.

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