Cannoli

Yesterday, for our church's Christmas brunch, I made cannoli.  It was actually my first attempt, but they turned out well! Yippee!  So, here's what I did.

There are two ways of making cannoli shells.  You can make the dough, use a form, and fry them.  OR you can make pizzelle cookies and roll them around a wooden dowel to shape them.  I opted for the second way.

I have two pizzelle makers. I bought a cuisinart pizzelle maker 7 years ago.  The clasp quickly broke off, but it has continued working.  Last year, I bought a Chef's Choice Pizzelle maker.  It makes 3 smaller pizzelles at a time.  The Cuisinart makes 2 larger ones.  I thought I would love the newer one, but I found that neither one works better than the other.  I still have to spray them both before each pizzlle with cooking spray.

I use the Pizzelle recipe that came in the manual with the cuisinart maker.
This recipe is almost the same:
  http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pizzelles-iii/

When the pizzelles are done, the green light goes on.  I set my machine to 3.  It makes a light colored pizzelle.  I take one of with a fork and gently roll it around the dowel.  I lean it against the black base of the maker.  Then I take the other one off and wrap it around a second dowel and lean it against the other side of the pizzelle maker.  Then, I spray the maker and start another 2 pizzelles.  After about 30 seconds, I gently slide the dowels out and move the cannoli shells off to the side (I put them in a rectangular tupperware that I have).

I made the filling using this recipe:

CANNOLI FILLING  
1 lb. Ricotta
2 c. powdered sugar (1 c. if you don't want the filling super sweet)
1/2 tsp. vanilla
3/4 c. mini chocolate chips
8 oz. cool whip

Mix ricotta, powdered sugar and flavoring. Beat well. Add mini chocolate chips. Fold cool whip into mixture.  Store the mixture in the fridge until you're ready to fill the cannolis.

I filled the cannolis right before we ate them.  At first, I used a Wilton pastry tube contraption, but the chocolate chips got stuck.  So, then I switched to a plastic bag--sandwich size.  Put the filling in the bag and seal.  Snip off one corner and squeeze filling out of the bag into cannolis.

Voila!  Cannolis :)