Desserts – tashlovesfood

This is an old favourite of mine that I’ve made nearly every Christmas for the last few years. It’s no bake (win) and isn’t too sweet. With a chestnut and chocolate centre and a snowy frosting, this dessert looks pretty and wintry.

Serves six to eight

INGREDIENTS

Chocolate Centre

100 dark chocolate (70%) broken into pieces
50g diced unsalted butter
435g chestnut puree
75g golden caster sugar
100g extra thick double cream
1^st vanilla extract

Snowy Frosting

1 medium egg
75g sifted icing sugar
25g sifted plain flour
½ tsp vanilla extract
90g unsalted butter

METHOD

1. Set the chocolate and butter over a pan of simmering water and gently melt. Remove from the heat and cool to room temperature.

2. Place the chestnut puree, sugar, cream and vanilla in bowl of a food processor and whizz until creamy. Add the chocolate mixture and mix again until you have a smooth puree.

3. It should be firm enough to shape into a mountain shape, but if not, you can place in the fridge for a few hours until set.

4. To make the frosting, whisk the egg and icing sugar together until smooth, then whisk in the flour. Bring the milk to the boil.

5. Whisk the milk into the egg mixture. Transfer to a non-stick pan and cook on a low heat for a few minutes. Let the mixture bubble (but not boil) and keep stirring to smooth out any lumps.

6. Continue to cook until thickened into custard, pass through a sieve into a bowl. Stir in the vanilla and leave to cool completely.

7. To complete the frosting, beat the softened butter in a bowl until light and creaming. Using a handheld electric whisk, gradually whisk in the cooled custard. Whisk at a low speed to begin with, then on a higher speed for a few minutes until it looks pale and fluffy.

8. Using a palette knife, smooth the frosting over the mountain. Finish with grated white chocolate and a dusting of icing sugar.

It’s best served after about 30 minutes out of the fridge and will keep well for a few days.

Enjoy!

Natasha

In Coppola’s GREAT film The Godfather, this is the instruction given by Peter Clemenza to Lampone after a murder on a deserted road. Cannoli was further immortalised in The Sopranos during one of Tony’s dreams where Dr. Melfi says, “Tony, I love your cannoli”. Saucy!

Hailing from Sicily, cannoli is one of my favourite pastry sweets. I love it so much that I will go through the hours of preparation to have one! If you’re a cannoli purist, look away now: I use marscarpone, not ricotta. Ricotta does nothing for me, marscarpone is an equally good variant to use.

I’m not sure where I acquired this recipe from, I’ve used it for about four years and it never fails. It’s time consuming but as in all love affairs with food, the end result is worth it. This recipe makes about 15 cannoli tubes which can be stored in an air tight container for up to two months.

Items you will need

Cannoli tubes are essential (I use these – they have a good spring to allow you to pinch the tube and easily slide the cannoli shell off after cooking)
Pasta machine
3.5 – 5 inch diameter pastry cutter
Pastry brush (if you haven’t already, get silicone!)

Ingredients: shells

190g white flour
25 white sugar
3g ground cinnamon
20g butter (or shortening)
1/2 egg
1/2 egg yolk
60ml sweet Marsala wine
8ml distilled white vinegar
30ml water
1/2 egg white
470ml oil for frying

Ingredients: filling*

*this will fill about four cannoli, so adjust accordingly to how many you plan to eat. And DON’T fill the cannoli in advance of eating as this results in the pasty becoming damp and you will lose the lovely crunch of the shell.

250g full fat marscarpone
3 tsps icing sugar (adjust the sweetness to suit you, anything more for me is too sweet and ruins the taste of the marscarpone)
Chocolate pieces (cut up small, I use 65% dark)
Ground pistachios for the edges

Now, prepare yourself for a few hours of preparation and fun!

In a bowl, mix the flour, sugar and cinnamon. Cut the butter into the bowl (no bigger than pea size). Make a well in the centre and pour in the egg, egg yolk, Marsala wine, vinegar and water.

2. Mix with a fork until the dough becomes stiff, then finish off by hand, kneading for about ten minutes on a clean surface. Cover and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.

3. Divide the cannoli dough into thirds and flatten each one just enough to get through the pasta machine. Roll the dough through the setting until you get to the machine’s thinnest setting. (Dust with flour if it’s sticking) Place the sheet of dough on a lightly floured surface and use the pastry cutter to cut out circles. Dust the circles with a light coating of flour and roll the pastry around the cannoli tubes, sealing the edge with a bit of egg white.

4. Heat the oil to 190 degrees C. Fry the shells on the tubes a few at a time for 2 to 3 minutes until golden. Use tongs to turn the shells if needed. Carefully remove the shells from the tubes and place on a cooling rack over paper towels.

Mix up the filling. You can of course use whatever filling you like, if you don’t mind ricotta then that’s the more traditional filling. Candied fruits are quite popular decoration, I LOVE pistachio so I prefer to have that on edges of the filled shells.