Ricotta Filled Cannoli by Lisa Valmorbida

Ingredients

The Cannoli:

250 g plain (all-purpose) flour
1 Tbs caster (superfine) sugar
1 egg, separated
25 g softened butter
125 ml sweet sherry, plus extra if necessary vegetable oil, for deep-frying

The Cassata Gelato:

105 g caster (superfine) sugar 25 g (1 oz) dextrose
15 g skim milk powder
4 g carob bean powder
500 g milk
125 ml pouring (single/light) cream
220 g cow's milk ricotta
100 g candied cedro lemon, finely diced, plus extra to decorate
100 g candied orange, finely diced, plus extra to decorate

Method

To make the cannoli, add the flour and sugar to the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat together on a low speed, adding the egg yolk, butter and sherry as you go, to form a soft dough, adding a little more sherry if the dough is too firm.

Roll the dough out through a pasta machine, one setting at a time, down to the second thinnest setting, then cut the dough sheets out into discs using a 10 cm (4 in) round cookie cutter.

Wrap the dough discs around 12 × 2.5 cm (5 × 1 in) metal cannoli tubes and brush with a little egg white to seal the sides together.

Fill a large saucepan half full with vegetable oil and heat to 170°C (340°F). Carefully lower the cannoli into the hot oil in batches and cook for 1–2 minutes until golden. Remove from the oil and drain on paper towel, then carefully slide the metal tubes out of one end and leave the shells seam-side down to cool completely. Store in a suitable container in the refrigerator until needed.

For the cassata gelato, put the sugar, dextrose and skim milk powder in a bowl and mix to combine.

Put the carob bean powder in a separate bowl. Add 2 tablespoons of the sugar mixture and mix together well.

Pour the milk and cream into a large heavy-based saucepan over a medium heat. Whisk in the carob bean powder mixture and continue to heat, whisking in the sugar mixture as you go, until it hits 85°C (185°F). Take the mixture off the heat, add the ricotta and blend with a hand-held blender until smooth, then pour into a suitable lidded container and leave to cool in the freezer for 1 hour, or until the mixture drops to 4°C (39°F). Turn on your gelato maker so it begins the freezing process.

Pour the mixture into your gelato maker. Once the mixture reaches –4°C (25°F) or is the consistency of soft-serve ice cream (this should take about 30–45 minutes) detach the canister or scoop the gelato into a pre-cooled lidded container. Transfer to the freezer and leave for at least 1 hour to harden. Remove the gelato from the freezer, add the diced candied fruit and stir to combine, then transfer back to the freezer and leave for another hour to harden further.

To assemble the cannoli, fill a piping bag with the cassata gelato and pipe each side of the cannoli shell with the gelato (if the gelato is too hard to pipe easily, put it in the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment added and beat it briefly to soften). Dip the ends of each cannoli in more candied lemon and orange, and eat right away.

Credits: This is an edited extract from Pidapipo by Lisa Valmorbida published by Hardie Grant Books RRP $40 and is available in stores nationally.

Photo Credits: Lauren Bamford and Jesper Hede. Illustrator: Jean Jullien