The November Daring Bakers Challenge: Cannoli

I love the smell of a fresh blog. Shiny, new, and full of promise. For me, the whole intention of starting a food blog was so that I could partake in the Daring Bakers Challenges run out of the Daring Kitchen. So, here it is, November's challenge!

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

It would figure that the first thing I'd have to tackle would be something deep-frying-related. Deep frying has never been a big part of my family's cooking habits - anything deep fried is bought from a restaurant or store. However, the point of the challenge was to get out of the comfort zone and do things that we never would otherwise try, so all par for the course, right?

The first challenge of the challenge was finding cannoli forms. I figured that since it was my first challenge and something I wasn't at all familiar with, I would suck it up and pay for cannoli forms that I purchaed. Well. Finding them turned out to be a problem. It wasn't until after I had given up that someone suggested that Michael's might have had them. Oh well, I was happy with what I ended up with. Seeing as dad has just about every kind of woodworking product and tool known to man, I was able to locate a one-inch dowel that we trimmed down to length and sanded carefully before oiling. I now have two authentic-looking forms, and they worked fabulously!


The dough was really stiff, and I have to admit that I doubted it the entire way through. I managed to roll it out eventually (with some help from my strong and manly brother), and it looked passable. Frying was not so scary, and in the end, I turned out some very good looking cannoli shells, if I do say so myself. I have learned one of the most important parts of this challenge: do not doubt the recipe until you know for certain you have failed miserably and need to start again.


Overall it turned out well. We dipped the ends of some of them in chocolate and crushed candy canes, since I had stopped into the grocery store and bought the candy canes on a whim. They were delicious with a nice glass of milk!