Italian Cannoli Ricotta Cheese Filling Recipes

CANNOLI SHELLS AND RICOTTA CREAM FILLING

Steps:

• Three or more days in advance of making the cannoli shells set the ricotta in a colander inside of a large bowl.
• Scrape the ricotta into the colander and cover with plastic wrap.
• Let the ricotta drain in the refrigerator for two days, until it is dry.
• To make the dough for cannoli shells: In a small bowl put eggs.
• Beat eggs; add vanilla and ice water to eggs.
• In a large bowl, use your hands to combine the flour, sugar, salt, cocoa, and cinnamon.
• Add the shortening and mix until crumbly.
• Make well in dry mixture and add wet mixture.
• Using your hands mix together, if it is dry, add more ice water.
• Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and well blended, about 3 minutes.
• Shape the dough into a flattened ball.
• Cover with plastic wrap and let rest at room temperature for at least 30 to 60 minutes.
• Cut the dough into 4 pieces.
• Starting at the middle setting, run one of the pieces of dough through the rollers of a pasta machine or the dough can be rolled on a board with a rolling pin.
• Lightly dust the dough with flour as needed to keep the pieces from sticking.
• Continue to pass the dough through the machine until you reach the last or second to last setting.
• You might need to run the dough through the pasta machine three times.
• The dough needs to be thin-about the same thickness as construction paper; cut the dough into 4 1/2 inch circles. (Giovanna's cannoli tubes are 6 inches long and 1 inch in diameter.).
• Continue rolling out the remaining dough.
• If you do not have enough cannoli tubes for all of the dough, lay the pieces of dough on sheets of plastic wrap and keep them covered until you are ready to use them.
• Put a rack in the bottom of a large heavy kettle that you plan on putting your peanut oil into so that your cannoli shells do not touch the bottom and burn. (Giovanna uses a restaurant kettle that is about 18 inches in diameter.).
• Pour about 2 inches of oil in a smaller kettle. Giovanna used 4 quarts but her kettle is huge!
• Heat oil until a deep frying thermometer shows 375 degrees.
• Oil the cannoli tubes by placing them in the hot oil then draining them in a metal bowl (you need the oil on the tube so that later the cannoli shell will slip off easily).
• Lay the dough circle flat, center the tube on it, bring left edge onto tube, dab it with egg white, bring up right side of dough circle, dab it with egg white, and roll the tube; do not press the dough. You do not want the dough to be too tight on the tube, or you will have difficulty later getting your cannoli off. Be careful not to stretch the dough or pull it tightly. Avoid, as best as possible, getting egg white on the tube, or the cannoli will stick to it.
• Repeat with the remaining dough.
• Carefully lower a few of the cannoli tubes into the hot oil. Do not crowd the pan.
• Fry the shells until golden, about 2 minutes, turning them so that they brown evenly.
• With tongs, remove the cannoli tubes, holding them straight up so that the oil flows back into the pan.
• Then drain the cannoli still on tube briefly in a metal bowl.
• While the cannoli shells are still hot, carefully slide the shells off the tubes by grasping each tube with a clean towel and gently twisting the cannoli shell off the tube with your other hand protected by an oven mitt or towel. On another work surface area, lay oilcloth or newspaper, topped with a large rack.
• When the cannoli shells are barely warm set them on top of the rack.
• It is important that the shells stay on the racks overnight.
• Repeat with the remaining dough.
• If you are reusing the cannoli tubes, let them cool before wrapping them in the dough; set aside.
• The cannoli shells can be made up to 2 months before serving if you drain them properly overnight, and store them in sealed containers in a cool, dry place, but not in a refrigerator.
• To make the ricotta cream, put the thoroughly dry ricotta in a large mixing bowl with a wire whip and blend until creamy.
• Add the confectioners' sugar, granulated sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon oil; blend until smooth.
• Transfer to a bowl and stir in the chocolate pieces. Store the ricotta cream in the refrigerator for 48 hours. After 48 hours, serve and freeze the rest.
• Frozen ricotta cream can be defrosted in the refrigerator later.
• To assemble, use a knife to push the ricotta cream into the cannoli shell.
• Place the cannoli on a serving platter and sprinkle with confectioners' sugar.
• Use within an hour.

5-INGREDIENT CANNOLIS

Steps:

• Place the ricotta cheese into a fine mesh strainer and place it in the fridge to drain for at least 12 hours and up to 24 hours.

AUTHENTIC ITALIAN CANNOLI RECIPE

Steps:

• Before you begin to prepare the cannoli shells (called "scorcie"), put the cheese to drain in a colander placed in a bowl, then store it in the fridge.
• Put in a large mixing bowl the flour, salt, cinnamon, powdered coffee, cocoa and sift the confectioners sugar.
• Add the lard, egg, and then the vinegar mixed with Marsala wine; the latter liquids should be added slowly, kneading the composition every time, as depending on how much the flour absorbs, you might not need to add the entire Marsala and vinegar mix. Keep in mind that the dough should be soft and elastic, but firm.
• Knead the mixture for 5 minutes on a work surface, until it is elastic, smooth and homogeneous, then wrap it in plastic and leave it to rest for at least an hour in the refrigerator.
• Now to prepare the cannoli cream for the topping, you will need take the well-drained ricotta cheese and place it inside a bowl where you add sugar.
• Gently stir the ingredients without applying too much pressure, then cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for at least an hour.
• After the indicated time, take a very fine mesh sieve, place it on a bowl and with the help of a spatula, crush the ricotta and sugar down and press on it, so that what comes out through the sieve is a very fine cream.
• Once the composition has the right density, add the chocolate chips (or, if you prefer, candied pumpkin cubes). Mix and place the cream cheese in the refrigerator, inside a container with a lid.
• Take the dough for the cannoli shells and place it on the table. Use a rolling pin to create a thin 1-2 mm pastry. Use round pastry rings to create at least 24 pieces.
• Stretch the 24 circles, then roll them around cannoli molds (if you have metal cylinders that works too), brushing the ends with the whites before stacking them.
• Heat the lard (or oil) in a saucepan not too big, until you get to 170-180 °C (338-356 F) and then fry all the cannoli shells. Place them afterwards on a couple of sheets of absorbent paper, to get rid of the extra oil, and let them cool completely before removing the metal cylinders.
• Once they cooled, fill the cannoli shells with the cannoli cream that you will put in a pastry bag, using a smooth and wide nozzle.
• Complete the process by cutting the candied cherry in two and place one half at each end. Instead of cherries, you can use orange peel or chopped pistachios.
• Top it with a generous sprinkling of powdered sugar and serve.

ITALIAN CANNOLI RICOTTA CHEESE FILLING

Steps:

• Whip the ricotta to a smooth consistency.
• Add the cool whip and powdered sugar.
• Whip again to combine ingredients, scrapping down the side of the bowl during mixing.
• Chill for a few hours before filling your shells.
• I like to split the filling into three bowls and mix in some chopped nuts in one bowl, mini chocolate chips in another and leave the third one plain.
• To fill the cannoli's, I find it easiest to fill a decorators bag and pipe the filling into the shells.
• Sprinkle the ends of the cannoli's with nuts and or sprinkles.
• Dust the tops of the cannoli's with powerdered sugar.
• Serve immediately.

CANNOLI

Steps:

• Using a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, whip heavy cream using whisk attachment until peaks form. This takes just a few minutes. Transfer to a separate bowl. Add mascarpone cheese to stand mixer bowl and blend until light and fluffy, just for a minute or two. Transfer mascarpone to the bowl with the whipped cream.
• Add ricotta to the stand mixer bowl and blend ricotta cheese until smooth. Mix in powdered sugar, vanilla, and zest. Fold in previously whipped heavy cream and mascarpone cheese along with pistachio flavor (if using).
• Cover and chill several hours or chill overnight.
• Whisk together flour, salt, sugar, and cinnamon. Cut in the butter. Make a well in the center and add the egg and and the egg yolk, wine, vinegar, and water. Mix with a fork to combine or use your hands to mix, if needed. Knead by hand or with a dough hook in your stand mixer for about 10 minutes. Form into a ball, wrap dough with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for about an hour.
• Roll out a rounded tablespoon of dough, press flat into a disk shape, and coat both sides with flour. You can try to roll it by hand, but I find it ideal to run through my pasta roller. The goal is to create flat ovals that are about 4-6 inches long, and the thinner and more uniform, the better they will cook.
• Using an Atlas pasta roller, I processed the dough starting at setting 1.
• Then I continued to increase the setting through to level 6.
• Lightly oil the outside of a tube (oil spray works great).
• Lay the tube on one end of the disc and roll the tube.
• When you reach the end dab egg white on the flap and finish rolling.
• Lightly press the the end with the egg white to seal.
• Heat oil to 350 degrees F. Fry 2-3 at a time (while still wrapped around cannoli form) until golden, about a minute. Remove with tongs and place on paper towels to drain. As soon as they are cool enough to handle, gently slip the form out of the shell. Cool completely before filling. Note: this process is SOOOO much easier if you have one person rolling the cannoli shells and the other person is cooking them.
• Remove ricotta filling from refrigerator. If it appears too liquid to stuff into the shells, whip with a whisk attachment on a stand mixer for about a minute on high speed. That should thicken it up. If you want chocolate chips mixed in with the filling, add about half to the filling and stir.
• Add ricotta filling to piping bag with a wide tube fitting and pipe into each shell. Insert at each end, start filling at the middle of the cannoli and work your way out. To serve, dust with powdered sugar and garnish ends with mini chocolate chips and crushed pistachios.

CANNOLI FILLING

Steps:

• In a medium bowl, stir together the ricotta cheese and confectioners' sugar. Fold in the citron. Chill until cold. Use to fill cannoli using a pastry bag.