“Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.” - Clemenza, The Godfather
This is my first SHF. In fact, it’s my first food-blogging 
event. I almost did IMBB11, but I had just started this blog and couldn’t quite make it happen. So of course this one had to be a scary one: puff pastry, hosted by that paragon of pastry, Clement of A La Cuisine! I could have done apples or nuts or spice; I make nice, simple, homey desserts with those ingredients all the time. Even white chocolate, which has only recently been admitted to my pantheon of dessert possibilities (I’m usually a “darker the better” kinda girl when it comes to chocolate) – even that I could have done. I coulda been a contender.
But puff pastry? Yikes. So I guess that’s all by way of saying that I took the easy road here and used packaged puff pastry. Which turned out to be fine, just fine.
What to make, what to make…I didn’t really feel like doing something classical, like pastry cream and berries. Although the fact is, I adore homemade rich custardy pastry cream and fresh berries, and part of me still really wishes I’d done that. There’s very little that could possibly be a better filling for any kind of pastry shell, I think.
So I decided to go where no puff pastry that I know of has gone before. I knew I wanted some kind of creamy filling for the flaky flaky layers and layers, but something a little different. Don’t know where it came from, really, but like a bolt from the beyond, the idea of cannoli cream hit me. I love cannoli cream, which is basically sweetened ricotta cheese. In fact, I like it much better than cannoli. When I first moved to NYC from my ancestral home in the suburbs, going to Little Italy was an adventure. Now (if one's visiting friends insist on going there) it more closely resembles a hellish visit to a faux-ethnic theme park. However, back in the golden days, my favorite dessert was a dish of fresh strawberries with cannoli cream.
And thus the birth of the puff pastry filled with cannoli cream. A French/Sicilian marriage, united by a New York girl…Cannoli? Napoleon? Napoli? No, no…Cannoleon!
Other influences kept mulling around in my tiny mind. One such was the list of ingredients for the
recent round of Paper Chef, which I also missed. These ingredients included wheat flour, oranges (possibly blood oranges), cinnamon and crème fraiche. The blood oranges stuck with me. So a side of blood-streaked sunbursts (blood orange slices poached in thousand-flower honey-Grand Marnier syrup) found their way onto the dessert plate.
The other night when I made this felt like an episode of I Love Lucy. Especially when the baking sheet of pastry I put on the lower rack puffed up high enough to touch the upper rack, and I almost, almost couldn’t get them out of the oven without shattering them all. Also nervewracking was the moment when I had the pastry in the oven and the timer went off while I was trying to poach the orange slices and simultaneously smooth out the ricotta for the cannoli cream in the food processor, and then the phone rang. It was one of my graduate students with a question about this week’s assignment. And of course I give them my email and my phone number because I want to be accessible to them. BUT NOT WHEN I’M WORKING ON MY ENTRY FOR SHF! Guess I didn’t really stipulate that in the syllabus. Whoops.
In any case, all was well, and my cannoleons finally made it onto the plate. I made a bunch of different pastry shapes, since I was playing with a new element. I wanted to see which one was best suited to the filling. Although not shaped like a napoleon or a cannoli, the little cups worked best for me.
And I decided that I really like puff pastry. Especially the shapes that sort of came apart, which I ate plain, all by themselves still warm off the baking sheet. I can’t wait to use the leftover sheets, maybe for something savory this time. Pot pie, anyone?
Ricotta Cream Pastries (aka Cannoleons) with Poached Blood Oranges
Poached Blood Oranges:
3 blood oranges: 1 juiced, 2 peeled and sliced into sunbursts
Grated rind of 1 blood orange (you’ll need to grate 2, however, for the rest of the recipe)
2 Tbsp. honey (I used Thousand-Flower honey from Spain; wildflower would be an admirable substitute, I’m sure)
2 Tbsp. Grand Marnier
Tiny pinch of cinnamon
Place the juice of the squeezed orange (about 1/3 cup), the honey, Grand Marnier and cinnamon in a small saucepan. Boil over medium heat until the honey is dissolved. Add the slices of blood orange, and poach for no more than 5 minutes (you don’t want them to fall apart). Remove the orange slices to a dish to cool, and reserve. Cook the liquid down until it has reduced by at least 1/2. It should be thick and syrupy. Stir in the grated rind, and reserve. Once the syrup is cool, pour it over the oranges.
Ricotta Cream Filling:
1 lb. Whole-milk ricotta cheese, drained overnight in cheesecloth
1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
Grated rind of 1 blood orange
Tiny pinch of salt
In a food processor fitted with the chopping blade, give the ricotta cheese a brief whirl until more or less smooth. Add the rest of the ingredients, whirl again, and remove to a bowl. Refrigerate and reserve.
Pastry and Assembly:
1 18 x 9 sheet of puff pastry, frozen or homemade
1/4 cup chopped or slivered pistachios
Chocolate curls made from a 1 oz. bar of dark chocolate
Preheat the oven to 400F. Cut the pastry into 12 rectangles. Place 4 of the rectangles on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. With the next 4, roll them diamond-wise around a narrow cylinder, such as a thin wooden rolling pin. Pinch two corners together (see pics) with a dab of cold water, and in each one, insert a small cylinder of parchment paper to keep them from collapsing. For the last 4, push each one snugly into the well of a greased muffin tin. Bake all for 15 minutes, until puffed and golden brown. Remove from the sheet and tin, and let them cool. Pull any bits of extraneous, semi-cooked pastry from the middle of the muffin shells and the cornets so that you have space in the center of each for filling. Split the rectangles into 2 pieces each, and peel away some of the dough from the interior.
Fill each shape with some ricotta cream, and decorate with pistachios and chocolate curls. Arrange on plates with some slices of blood orange in syrup.
YOU have given me the answer to my prayers!! (ok, I'm getting a little dramatic here..) I LOVE this and will try it right away. Funny, I've never made cannoli in my entire life (too lazy, easier just to hop over to the pastry shop and buy'em). I've got all of the ingredients except the ricotta.....will get that tonight and either on Saturday or Sunday, my husband will think me a goddess!!! Way to go Julie!!
Posted by: rowena | February 11, 2005 at 03:22 AM
Oh my!!! Your description of your pastry has almost convinced me that I must be wrong about puff pastry in a dessert! Your poached blood oranges and ricotta filling sound and look divine. Bravissima!
Posted by: ejm | February 11, 2005 at 06:08 PM
I love that sentence - "not a small reptile, or even a weapon, but a pastry"! LOL! I especially like the cylinder shape, but everything looks really good! Umm, blood oranges...
Posted by: Zarah Maria | February 12, 2005 at 07:15 AM
"Cannoleons"...very very creative! I like it, Julie.
xx
Posted by: Lea | February 12, 2005 at 10:16 AM
Hi Julie - that's so creative! It certainly sounds and looks delicious, so perhaps it's just a matter of time before your invention takes off and becomes a household item. Thanks so much for participating in SHF 5 - I look forward to seeing what you'll come up with next!
Posted by: Clement | February 12, 2005 at 02:47 PM
Oh, yeah, baby, yeah! Seriously, you have an amazing palate. I never would have thought of such a combination, but it makes perfect sense. And is that a Penzeys jar I see in that one photo? You are so completely and utterly blogrolled right now. :)
Oh, and as far as the nomenclature goes? I approve. ;)
Posted by: Bakerina | February 13, 2005 at 08:59 AM
Of course it's Penzey's, my dear girl. It's that good Vietnamese cinnamon that I bought in one of the big bags, and transferred to one of their little jars, whereupon I made my own clever little label...BTW, have you tried their Turkish Spice? It's becoming difficult for me to cook things without it...
Posted by: Julie | February 13, 2005 at 01:21 PM
OH.MY.GAWD. You are incredible, Julie! I am making these this week, come hell or high water. I'll give them away if I have to (so I won't eat the whole batch, of course), but they must be made. Now I just have to find some blood oranges...
Posted by: Moira | February 13, 2005 at 05:34 PM
Julie,
I tried this over the weekend....the blood oranges got me....and I have to tell you...It.Was.Fantastic!
Posted by: rowena | February 14, 2005 at 03:24 AM
Rowena, I'm so glad they worked well for you. What shape pastry did you make? Or did you make pastry at all? At certain point, I almost felt I could dispense with the pastry and just eat ricotta cream and blood oranges, which definitely get me too...they're something beautiful and mysterious about them. Just what we want to be for Valentine's day...mysterious beauties. I'm definitely going to give your luscious pears a whirl as well, since they look absolutely delectable.
Elizabeth, thanks so much for stopping by -- and your kind comments as well. Love your blog too, y'know...
xoxo to my loyal friends and supporters Lea and Zarah...Zarah, I've gotta try BOTH your entries!
Clement, thanks so much for hosting. Your enty looks beautiful -- wish I had a creamy crunchy mouthful of it myself!
Bakerina, you're a goddess as well you know, and the nameless faceless "they" that run all our lives should pay you just to write your fabulous blog or anything else you damn well please...
Moira, I'm flattered beyond words. Thanks so much for stopping by -- I'm a great admirer of yours as well. Can't wait to try the ice cream with pomegranate molasses too! I just happen to have pomegranates and pomegranate juice in the fridge AND pomegranate molasses in the cupboard, so I have no excuse!
Posted by: Julie | February 14, 2005 at 06:39 AM
Julie - what a fabulous creation! You are a star in my books now. Thanks so much for joining in on SHF #5 and I am glad you had such a great time doing so!
Posted by: Jennifer | February 15, 2005 at 10:10 AM
Jennifer, thanks so much for your sweet comment -- and it's great to have you stop by. I'm looking forward to participating in more SHF, IMBB and other food-blogging events...
Posted by: Julie | February 15, 2005 at 11:01 AM
You are too kind, Julie. I'm glad you found me, but I'm really glad I found your blog. I do love talking about food! -Elizabeth
Posted by: ejm | February 15, 2005 at 11:06 AM