When the moon hits your eye, like a big pizza pie, that’s . . . cannoli! Or something like that. Week 42: Pistachio & Chocolate Chip Cannoli.

 

 

Fun fact for your day: cannoli is actually the plural version of the Italian word cannolo. I actually hadn’t had one worth recommending until I went to Mike’s Pastry in Boston. SO GOOD. It is almost impossible to top one of their masterpieces, but I had to try!

 

 

See those nice metal cylinders? No, they aren’t stolen from a windchime – they’re official cannoli molds/forms. Add it to the list of seemingly unnecessary, ridiculously specific kitchen utensils. In this case, however, I really couldn’t find a workable alternative so I sucked it up and bought a set. I’ll use them to make chimney cakes later on! They’re these delicious spiral-shaped pastries that I got at a Hungarian food truck in SF last year. Doused in unsweetened cocoa and letting off clouds of delicious steam – YUM. If you’re in the Bay Area, do yourself a favor and go find Rill’s Chimney Cake food truck.

 

 

There actually wasn’t a ton of butter in this recipe! (Don’t get too excited about how healthy it is – it has wine in it and it’s fried.) The lil slice of butter on the right of the knife is how much went into the dough.

 

 

The dough smelled so good! The half cup of white wine gave it a subtly sweet and tangy aroma. A few recipes I read through called for marsala wine (fortified wine mostly used for cooking nowadays) but I just used a bit of the sauvignon blanc I had open already. My thought is: if you’d drink it, then it’ll be good in a pastry dough.

 

 

Pistachios go with everything, am I right? Slightly salty, super rich flavor. Especially when paired with mini chocolate chips. Aw yeah. There are tons of flavors to pick from when it comes to the filling for cannoli, but I wanted to stick closer to the classic ricotta and chocolate chip option. I didn’t include nutmeg as the recipe suggested, but if I’m out of pistachios next time, I think I’ll give it a try.

 

 

 

Frying has never been one of my strong suits. I always manage to burn myself in the process and it makes the whole apartment smell like a stale french fry. Good thing it yields delicious results! I rolled and cut each of the little guys with a 4 inch cookie cutter and formed them into little burritos using my cannoli form. I fried them on the form, as opposed to trying to slide them off and having them fall apart in the oil. Except for the fact that the forms had to cool off inbetween frying rounds, it worked like a charm!

 

 

They look a bit like mini dessert taquitos. The filling didn’t hold it’s piped shape, but next time I’ll try draining the ricotta overnight. Without the excess liquid, it should hold up great! Happy munching!

 

Recipe from: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alexandra-guarnaschelli/homemade-cannoli-recipe-2042720 and http://bakerbynature.com/5-ingredient-cannolis/