Cannoli Shells

by Aihui Ong (I We)

Information

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups of all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tablespoon sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tablespoon firm cold butter, cut in small pieces
1/4 cup white wine
1 egg white, slightly beaten
Canola oil (or any oil) for deep frying

* see below for cannoli filling recipes

Directions

1) Sift flour, salt and sugar. Attach dough hook onto electric mixer. Add butter and 1 egg. Mix at low speed. Then add flour. Beat at low speed. Add wine, 1 tablespoon at a time a dough starts to form into a ball.

2) Remove ball of dough and wrap it in plastic wrap. Put in the fridge for at least 30 mins.

3) Roll out dough on a floured surface to about 1/16" (0.2cm) thick. To make petite cannoli shells, cut into 2" circles. You can actually wrap 2 petite cannoli dough around 1 cannoli form (see photo). For regular size cannoli, use a 3.5" round cutter.

4) For each cut out dough, roll it out more till it becomes really thin. Thinner the better to prevent your cannoli shells from being too thick. Then wrap thin dough around each cannoli form. Seal the edges with the egg white and flair the ends slightly. Do not allow egg white to touch the cannoli form. This will cause the cannoli to stick to the form after frying.

5) Heat oil to 350F. If you do not have a cooking thermometer, dip one end of a wooden chopstick into hot oil. If the oil bubbles, then the oil is hot enough. Fry 2-3 cannoli form at a time till golden brown, about one minute. Remove with tongs and place on paper towel to cool. To remove cannoli shells from the form, use 2 pieces of paper towel to hold the form on each end. This will prevent you from being burnt from the hot cannoli. Then gently twist the cannoli and it should slide out. Let cannoli cool completely.