Cannoli (recipe)

You know that it's exams when I decide to update this blog. You also know it's exams when I don't just buy pre-made cannoli shells and stuff them with my own filling, but make them from scratch.
Don't let the 'from scratch' scare you, it's really easy to make! The pastry isn't fiddly and it's as simple as rolling, cutting, frying, filling.

Recipe adapted from Australian Gourmet Traveller magazine

Ingredients:
For the shells
Round cannelloni pasta tubes
150g plain flour
30g caster sugar
sprinkle of ground cinnamon
30ml marsala
20g melted and cooled butter
1 egg, lightly whisked
Vegetable oil for deep frying
Icing sugar for dusting
For the filling
700g firm ricotta (This needs to be really dry. If it's quite wet, let it sit in the sink to drain for a few hours in a strainer)
50ml marsala
40g pure icing sugar
handful of chopped roasted almonds

Equipment:
Pasta machine (not essential, but easier and faster)
Piping bag

Method:
1. Sift flour, sugar and cinnamon into a bowl. Mix together
2. In a separate bowl combine the marsala, melted butter and egg
3. Pour egg mixture into the flour mixture and combine until a ball starts to form
4. Empty out onto a well floured bench and knead until smooth and elastic (5-10 minutes). Don't be scared of incorporating too much flour into your dough. I found my dough to be quite wet and therefore incorporated quite a bit of the flour that was sprinkled on my bench top.
5. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour

6. To make the filling mix all the ingredients really well with a spoon. Put the mixture into a piping bag, sealing the open tip off with a peg so it doesn't leak out. Put the piping bag into the fridge.

7. Once the dough is rested, cut the dough into 4 portions. Lightly flour your bench top and working with one portion at a time, feed the dough through the pasta machine starting at the widest setting and reducing the settings notch until the dough is 2mm thick. Or alternatively, just use a good old fashioned rolling pin. Keep the remainder of the dough covered in the cling film to prevent them from drying out.
8. Place the pastry onto the lightly floured bench. Cut the pastry into squares using the length of the cannoli pasta tube as a guide. The sides of the pastry square should be roughly the same length as the cannoli pasta tube.
9. Working with one pasta square and one cannoli tube at a time, lightly grease a cannoli tube with oil using a pastry brush or a paper towel. Place the cannoli tube diagonally across the pasta square and fold in the corners, overlapping slightly and pressing firmly to seal. Don't wrap the pasta around the tube too tightly otherwise they will be hard to remove. Repeat until no more dough remains.
10. Heat oil in a deep-fryer or a wok until 180degrees celcius. If you don't have a thermometer you can also gauge the temperature by sticking the end of a wooden spoon (or chopstick!) into the oil - if you see lots of bubbles around the stick, the oil's hot enough. Deep fry the cannoli in batches turning occasionally until crisp and golden. approx 2-3 minutes. Drain on some paper towel and then gently slide the cannoli tubes out.

11. Once the cannoli shells are cool, pipe the ricotta filling in, dust with icing sugar and eat immediately! I know I don't need to tell you because I'm sure these will be gobbled up in no time, but you really must only pipe in the ricotta moments before you serve. Soggy cannoli is no fun. Enjoy!