Sicilian cannoli

Yesterday morning I woke up very happy because I wanted to prepare the Sicilian cannoli. I was conscious that not having ever made it would have been difficult and that there was so much I wanted my aunt Elsa to teach me, but she is in Italy and who knows when I'll see her ... I wanted then groped and eventually my stubbornness I was rewarded. 

I spent the whole of Sunday in the kitchen, experimenting with different recipes, in fact, the cannoli were good, but not quite as crispy as I like. Anyone who knows me knows that
I am a perfectionist, which is why I tried to change the mix, but the result still did not satisfy me. I thought then that it could be the temperature of the oil, but it was not even that. I tried to let the dough rest more, but nothing, not even depended on it. I was about to give up. After four attempts I finally got what I wanted for dinner and I had a fantastic dessert.

Ingredients for about 8 big cannoli:

For the shells

1 1/3 cup of all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon melted butter

2 tablespoon of sugar

Sweet Marsala wine or Dry white wine (about 4 tablespoons)

1 teaspoon of cocoa powder

1 teaspoon of vinegar

Pinch of salt

Vegetable oil, for deep frying

For the filling

1 1/2 pound of fresh ricotta cheese

½ cup pf chocolate chips

½ cup pf candied fruit, finely sliced

4 glace cherries and icing sugar to decorate

Instructions:

Mix together the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, melted butter, and salt. Add enough wine to make a smooth, stretchable dough. Form into a ball, cover with a cloth and let stand at room temperature for about 1 hour.

Meanwhile drain your ricotta cheese. Add the chocolate chips and the candied fruit. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Heat enough vegetable oil in a deep pan to be able to submerge the shells.

Roll out the dough on a well-floured board to about 1/8 of an inch thick (I used the pasta machine). Using a round cookie cutter (or the rim of a glass), cut out as many rounds as you can, and roll again until very thin. Wrap dough around tube by overlapping the 2 sides, sealing the overlapping sides with a little egg white. Be sure the edges are sealed good because they tend to pop open when frying.

Drop 1 or 2 of the tubes at a time into the hot oil. Fry until they are light brown and crisp. Place on paper towels to drain. Let the shells cool before removing them from the tubes. Do this until all of your dough is used.

Fill cold cannoli shells. Decorate each end with a piece of glace cherry and dust the cannoli with icing sugar.

Agnese TIPS FOR BEST RESULT:

Fill the shells just before serving. The shells will lose their flakiness and become soggy if you fill them too soon.

Be sure to roll out the dough very thinly to give the fried shells the blistered texture of true cannoli!

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