Daring Bakers Challenge: Cannoli

Ten things I learned about cannoli . . .

1. Cannoli dough is very easy to make.
2. Cannoli dough feels like play-doh and doesn't stick to your fingers.
3. Cannoli dough is VERY VERY VERY hard to roll out.
4. Cannoli dough needs LOTS of time to rest before it is cut otherwise it shrinks like wool in the dryer.
5. Cannoli dough doesn't fry beautifully unless it is VERY VERY VERY thinly rolled. See points 3 and 4.
6. Don't try frying cannoli without a thermometer.
7. The more cannoli forms you have the faster you'll finish frying them BUT you may never use them again in which case they make great baby toys.
8. The traditional cannoli filling is even better if you make your own ricotta cheese.
9. The traditional cannoli filling is even better if you substitute mascarpone cheese for some of the ricotta. You should probably try making this yourself too but don't ask me how since I haven't ever done it.
10. Homemade cannoli is divine!
    

Thanks for another great Daring Bakers Challenge. If you are interested in viewing photos, recipes, or rules about becoming a Daring Baker check out the Daring Kitchen.

Soup and Donuts

One of the meals that I loved growing up was soup and donuts. My mother would heat up a few cans of soup and open a box of fresh donuts from the donut shop and dinner was served! So, sometimes I serve the same thing. Tonight I took it up a notch. I made an Autumn Bisque from Victoria Magazine. It's a savory pumpkin soup that's chock full of veggies - pumpkin, of course, onions, carrots, celery, leeks, mushrooms. Added to that some thyme and coconut milk and you've got yourself a tasty autumnal meal.

Then, inspired by memories of trips to Atkins Farm during college, I fried up a batch of cider donuts. I used the recipe provided here. The dough was very gooey and somewhat difficult to work with. It didn't help that I had run out of parchment paper so I couldn't follow the directions of rolling it out on parchment. Plus I was supposed to freeze the dough for 20 minutes before cutting but my pan was too big for my freezer. Oops. So, there were a few gloppy tries and a few expletives before I finally got my donuts cut and fried. I dipped them in a cider glaze and served them up. They were fabulous! Crisp, cider-scented, so yummy. I will say this, though. I heard Michael Pollan speaking on NPR about healthful eating. His philosophy was that one could eat junk food if one makes it at home. The idea is that if you have to cut, fry, and clean up after yourself you are far less likely to eat lots of junk food. After tonight's dinner, I quite agree with him. I probably won't do this again for a loooooooooong time!

Martha Monday: Nut Wreath

Yesterday's project, a nut wreath from the Good Things section of the November Martha Stewart Living, was selected by me so first I have to apologize to all my fellow Monday Martha participants for the price of this project. I had no idea that nuts in the shell would cost a pretty penny! I purchased four pounds of walnuts and assorted nuts for $12! And I still had to buy a wooden wreath frame, $4, and ribbon which I thankfully found on sale for about fifty cents. The idea is rather simple. Hot glue nuts to a wreath frame. Tie a ribbon around it. Hang it on your door. Besides the expense of the nuts, the other problem I encountered was that my craft store did not have a 24-inch wooden wreath frame. The largest size was 18 inches. This helped me actually because I only needed four pounds of nuts not five. I hot glued the walnuts onto the frame first. This was easy. Then I was supposed to fill in the spaces and sides with other nuts. Thank goodness for Brazil nuts!!!! They were big so it didn't take as long as it could have. I used lots of Brazil nuts on the inner and outer ring. Pecans and almonds were saved for the center since they provided variety of texture and color. My bag of nuts claimed to also contain hazelnuts but I only found three! With only one major burn to my finger I got all the nuts glued on. I fashioned a hook out of a plastic wrapped wire and attached it through a hole in the wreath, hot gluing it into place. Then I tied the ribbon and hung it from the nail on my door. It looks great!

The only problem now is that I have an old ugly storm door that prevents people from seeing it hanging on my door. I might have to go buy a wreath hanger so I can hang it on the storm door. After all that work I want people to ooh and ah! Oh, and, if you think about it, professional wreaths can cost anywhere from $30 to $100 so this wreath was a bargain. Really!