Cannoli Siciliani for Mother’s day

Sieve 1 cup of the flour into your mixing bowl, add the egg yolks and
mix for 30 seconds to achieve a crumb like texture. Cover the bowl with
plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Remove from the fridge and add the remaining sifted flour, lightly beaten egg, lemon rind and Marsala and mix well.

Turn the mixture out onto a floured surface, bring it together and knead for 10 to 15 minutes.

Cover again in cling wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Cut
the dough into 4 pieces and roll out into paper thin sheets. It is
important to roll the dough very thin, as it will result in a crispy
cannolo.

Roll each piece of dough through a pasta machine on the
largest setting 3 times, in between each roll, fold the dough in on
itself twice and dust with a little extra flour to prevent it from
sticking to the machine.

Using a cookie cutter, cut circles of the dough and wrap each circle around a pipe mould, 10 centimeters in length and about 3 centimeters in diameter.

Overlap
the ends and glue the cannoli closed by brushing a little egg white
between them. Be careful not to get egg white on the mould
which will make it difficult to remove.

Heat a pot of sunflower oil to boiling point, and fry the cannoli, wrapped around the moulds, 4 at a time.

Turn
the cannoli in the oil to ensure that they cook evenly all round and after a
while the cannoli will start to puff up and bubble. Fry until golden
brown then remove and place onto kitchen paper to drain off the excess
oil.

While the cannoli are still hot, gently pull them off the wooden mould, and allow them to cool.

Once
you have cooked all of the cannoli, return them to the oil and fry them
again for 1 minute without the moulds. This will ensure that the
pastry has the required a crunch when you bite into it.

Filling:

Place the ricotta cheese into your mixing bowl, add the sifted icing sugar and beat on high for at least 5 minutes. 

Add
the ground cinnamon, lemon zest, vanilla beans, chopped cherries,
chopped pineapple and mixed fruit peel to the ricotta cheese and mix again,
at high speed for 4 minutes.

Spoon the filling into a piping bag and pipe into each cannolo.

Roll each cannolo in sifted icing sugar and dip both ends into the grated dark chocolate.

Reprinted with permission by JaniceTripepi. To see more recipes, click here.