Rachel and I made a cannoli date. She's brought her family recipe for cannoli filling and I brought my willingness to try any recipe once for the cannoli shells. So, I got me some Cannoli pastry forms down at Cookin' (an eclectic store in my 'hood that sells recycled kitchenware).
I followed a recipe for making the dough that I found on a blog called "La Mia Vita Dolce". The only thing I was initially worried about was not having the pasta dough machine -- but it turns out hand rolling {like the good old days} was sufficient and quite the arm workout.
Rachel and I wondered why one end of the cannoli tube was smaller than the other. We realized that it's because it helps when you're trying to take it off after frying! Mmm, frying. See those bubbles? That's how you know it's working.
Rachel whipped up some yummy ricotta filling in a jiff. She goes by the Cole recipe method where you just "eyeball" things. She uses foreign phrases like "about half", "a splash of", and "add to taste" Come ON! I need measurements, weights, and extremely wordy recipes! :) I do know that the recipe did contain part-skim ricotta cheese (so you don't have to drain overnight), powdered sugar, mini chocolate chips, and Kahlua. So, you can either mess around with those ingredients, or try out the one on the blog listed above if you have "the fear" like me.
They taste the best if you eat them within an hour of making them, in my opinion. I tried freezing some empty shells and filling 'em when ready to serve, but they weren't as good...
That small amount of dough sure makes alotta cannolis. Rachel and I went half-sies.
Good fun, Rach. We must do it again sometime. Except next time, Cannoli Ice Cream!