Cannoli Making, Halloween & Mikeys Birthday

Just a warning that this is a super long post!

A couple of weeks ago Mikey and I decided to take the plunge and make our own cannoli.

Cannoli are a Sicilian pastry desert traditionally made from fried dough and filled with a creamy filling, usually ricotta.

Because we didnt have any cannoli forms I searched for a recipe which required the dough to not be fried in oil, but baked in the oven. This of course is a variation to the traditional cannoli, and I dare say slightly better for you. I also wanted to make a filling of custard, unlike the traditional ricotta filling.

adapted from here

4 tablespoons margarine

1/3 cup sugar

3 teaspoons Ener-G Egg Replacer mixed with 4 tablespoons warm water (this is equal to 2-3 eggs)

1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon zested orange

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Oil spray

- Preheat oven to 375

- Mix your egg replacer and set aside. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper, spray with oil. Look for something that is about 1" in diameter that is round to wrap the shell around once they are removed from the oven. I used a thick highlighter wrapped in foil, as you can see in the photo below.

- Now, using something that is a 4"-5" circle (I used a soup mug as in the photo below) and with a pencil draw two circles on your paper on each cookie sheet. Now turn the parchment paper over.

- Meanwhile, mix the butter with the sugar until it is fluffy. Next, add the egg replacer and mix until fully incorporated. Then add zest, extracts and flour. Mix well until dough is smooth.

- Take a tablespoon of the mixture and place in the center of the circles on ONE cookie tray at a time! Spread the dough out to nearly meet the edge of the outline of the circle you've drawn (as in the photo below).

- Bake two at a time for 8 minutes--not too long or you will not be able to shape these. Look for when the shells just begin browning (as in the photo below). Remove from oven.

- Now, this part is a little tricky, and you will need to work quickly, it helps to have an extra pair of hands. Just a warning, they are quite hot so be careful :) Using the 1" round object, place it in the centre of one of the rounds and wrap the edges up so they just overlap and hold for a few seconds or until the shell holds its shape (as in the photo below). Quickly move onto the second shell. We used two trays and cooked one lot whilst shaping the over, other wise we would have been baking all day.

- Allow them to cool and then they are ready to be filled. Or if you want the ends chocolate coated like I did, simply melt some chocolate in the microwave and dip the ends in and set in the fridge.

- Please note that cannoli shells should be filled the same day they are eaten or else they will go soggy. This wasnt a problem, I just kept the bowl of custard in the fridge and the shells in a airtight container out of the fridge and piped into the shells just before eating.

Next time I make these shells I will be using 2/3 of the amount of sugar, I thought they were a little sweet.

(Above: Clockwise from top left- Cannoli shell dough; drawing circles onto the baking paper; spreading the mixture into circles; after baking)

(Above: shaping the cannoli after removing from the oven)

To fill my cannoli shells I used vanilla custard. I followed the recipe on the side of the custard box using rice milk, vanilla essence and the custard powder except I had to add extra custard powder to make it thick enough to pipe. The custard will also thicken as it cools.

Mikey decided to make a seperate batch of dough and add some cocoa powder. He filled his cannoli with a ricotta filling (pictured below). He used the filling recipe from here.

So thats how you make cannoli, easy pesy ha? Let me know if you plan to make these and have any questions :)

Last weekend was my brothers 21st birthday. He had a halloween party and all his friends dressed up. We got some pretty awesome decorations, thought I would share just a couple.

This skeleton candle which we thought was just a plain ol candle, while it was burning we couldnt believe when red wax started seeping through the eyes!


My brother and his girlfriend carved out 5 pumpkin heads, below is just one, and some of the spiders web in the background. Oh and they had eyeball lollies which you can see on the table.


And we had a couple of these skulls with flashing eyeballs.

We had more trick or treaters this year than ever before! I wonder if Australia will ever celebrate halloween the was the US does, that would be so great!

On Monday was Mikeys birthday.

Here is a terrible photo of the cake I made him. It was the same recipe that he made for my birthday earlier this year. I topped it with chocolate ganache which was made with melted chocolate and rice milk. It was a chocolate overload so the strawberries on top were perfect!

We decided to head up to the Adelaide Hills for the day. First we went to part of the Heysen Trail called the Pioneer Women's Trail. Apparently as early as 1838 women would walk the track carrying fresh produce from their village to the city, a huge 35km! Each woman would carry two bricks (along with other goods) on their return to contrubute to building a church in their town.
After just 1 1/2 hours of walking the track and I was pooped. But it was really beautiful, there was a stream running along some of the track and the wild flowers are out at the moment too.

This particular track starts in Bridgewater just next to this lovely old mill.


The weather was perfect for walking!

And alot of the track was flat.

We went through a couple of these tunnels which went under the highway.

And then we got to this BIG hill! And Mikey wanted to walk up it, I didnt, but you see it was his birthday so I did. It doesnt look big in this photo...but it was! It wound up through the left of the photo.

The view from the top...



Hope youve had a lovely week :)