Daring Bakers: Cannoli

Think of the last thing you ate that was deep fried.  Got it?  Although my wontons are a recent memory, the biggest deep fried memory I have are mini donuts.  They don't even call them doughnuts, just donuts because they're mini.  They'd be freshly deep fried, with cinnamon sugar poured all over.  You could eat them all day.  In fact, for that one day each year, you would.  Of course, these were not homemade.  They were probably made by underpaid (possibly overpaid) teens, who would rather be somewhere else with their friends.  This month for Daring Bakers, we made cannoli.  These ones were made for free by this teenager (guess that would make me underpaid?) and I wouldn't rather be anywhere else.  Something about kneading a dough with your own hands, rolling it out and cutting into random shapes with the hope that it will all turn out perfectly.  Then, they puffed!  Really really big.  Some had just one giant air bubble.  Made them look like suns.

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.

Since it is cannoli, I'm not sure if it was supposed to puff.  I think a blistering effect was intended, but who cares?  Having more elasticity will never be an issue of gluten free, the problem is not having enough - so when there is more, we steal it, hoard it away and of course, show you.

This was an interesting challenge, or at least an interesting conversation.  I had to ask my dad to go buy some wine.  And I don't drink.  Ever.  I think he did a double take, especially when I told him what general type he had to get.  But its all good!  I used the bit I needed for this, and mom and dad enjoyed the rest.  In case you were wondering, I used a white wine because my mom is allergic to red.

Then there was the morning after.  Oh, the pain.  Worst heartburn I've ever had.  So, unfortunately it looks like I won't be making these again, because that was torture.  I was planning on making a filling to go with it, the next day, but since I knew I wouldn't be having any more, that didn't happen.  Sorry!

Enough about that, I've got pictures!

The question is, how does it go from many flours, to this?  Yummy!

First, it acts all psychic.  It just knew that cannoli would be the ultimate destination.

Then puff!  Boom.  Its huge.  Like 2 inches tall.

Then all the shapes chill out in the bowls.  I see spaceships, hearts, suns, and of course cannoli (tubes)!

They're just so darn cute.  And evil.  But mostly cute.

Sprinkle of icing sugar, and there you go.  Eat, enjoy, have heartburn, whatever works for you!

I used this cannoli recipe, just subbing 1 cup of sorghum for 1 cup of the brown rice flour, and adding a lot more liquid.  At least half a cup, maybe more.  Just so it came together, and wasn't a crumbly mess.  Because it was, for quite some time!  And there was a lot of kneading.  Lots and lots.  Gluten free baking can be so magical, because you never quite know if you're going to get what you first envisioned!

Thanks to Lisa Michele for this challenge!  I really did love it, even if the after effects weren't so great.

xoxo
Lauren

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