Daring Bakers Challenge : Cannoli
I should first confess that I baked my cannoli. I’ve made plenty of cannoli before, but never at home due to my no-deep-frying-at-home policy (partly because I dread having to do the requisite post-fry clean up).
So, baked cannoli. Despite this, they actually turned out pretty well. The shells may have lacked that wonderful bit of blistering you get from frying, but they were slightly puffy and acceptably crunchy. A step up from the vast difference between oven chips and fried chips, if you will.
The resulting cannoli formed part of a dessert that played on the flavours of avocado, vegemite and toast; three ingredients which are one of my favourite ways to start the morning. How I came about the idea of incorporating them into a dessert, is a bit long winded and would probably require a flowchart to accurately re-tell. So I’m not going to.
Instead, I thought I would distract you with a recollection of my first avocado experience. Growing up, avocados were considered pretty exotic, so it was only when I was at least 10 that I tried my first avocado. It being the 80’s (that was the excuse anyway), mom served it to us sliced, with scoops of store-bought vanilla ice-cream. It was so horrible, I think I tried to hide the slices underneath the pool of melted ice-cream, and it was many years later before I finally realised how delicious avocados were.
Meanwhile, back at the cannoli factory…
I filled the cannoli shells with a vegemite chocolate ganache and paired them with a scoop of avocado ice-cream and some twisty chocolate tuiles for extra crunch. The avocado ice-cream recipe comes from The Perfect Scoop, by David Leibovitz. Following David’s recommendation to pour espresso over the ice-cream, I decided to incorporate coffee into the dessert, in the form of a crumble.
As with most first attempts, this is a tasty dish that would require a few changes if I were to make it again. And you know what, I just might make it again!
The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.
Thanks Lisa Michele, for picking such a versatile and interesting challenge this month!
Tags: avocado, cannoli, chocolate, Daring Bakers, ice-cream, plated dessert, vegemite
ATigerintheKitchen said,
November 29, 2009 @ 9:34 am
What beautiful, beautiful pictures!!! Congrats…
Laura said,
November 29, 2009 @ 11:15 am
Y, this dish looks beautiful and it must taste delicious! I will have to try avocado ice cream, and I have the book. The first time I tried avocado, it was in Italy and they weren’t haas, but some other variety and I seriously gagged, now I love them. I didn’t make the challenge despite the fact that I made both the dough and the filling. I run out of time before we left for out little Thanksgiving trip. Oh well…
Jane said,
November 29, 2009 @ 12:17 pm
I never would have guessed they are baked–they are really beautiful! Your photos are just incredible. Very lovely indeed!
Jane
Xiaolu @ 6 Bittersweets said,
November 29, 2009 @ 2:35 pm
It’s great to hear that these still taste relatively good without the deep-frying. I love your unique combination of flavors here. I used to work in a Chinese restaurant that served bubble teas including a fresh-avocado flavor. It was pretty good, so I’d definitely give avocado ice cream a go.
grace said,
November 29, 2009 @ 7:12 pm
your cannolis are grand–they look properly crispy and the filling would be awesome. i think tossing on some avocado ice cream was the very best idea of all–bravo, y!
Cheri said,
November 30, 2009 @ 5:15 am
That is absolutely stunning! I am loving how the pale green and brown play off eachother. Your plating and presentation are breathtaking.
chef_d said,
November 30, 2009 @ 12:57 pm
beautiful plating. and interesting flavor 🙂
Ivonne said,
November 30, 2009 @ 2:12 pm
Wow … vegemite and avocado and cannoli. You are ambitious! I love that you baked the cannoli … I’m not the biggest fan of frying due to the post-frying mess either so I’m glad to see baking was successful. Nicely done!
anna said,
November 30, 2009 @ 2:29 pm
Ooh, it’s so pretty! I love the tuiles. I’m a little avocado-shy…aside from buried deep within veggie sushi I’ve only had it once, on its own, and I couldn’t stand it. Maybe it wasn’t a very good one…I just didn’t enjoy the buttery texture with the bland greenish taste. ?
Natalie said,
November 30, 2009 @ 3:40 pm
Absolutely superb job! I love your presentation!
Natalie @ Gluten A Go Go
Forager said,
November 30, 2009 @ 6:52 pm
Your creations are always so beautiful! Like art, sweet, delicious art.
lauresophie said,
December 3, 2009 @ 6:57 am
Good luck! great picture and recipe! Can I have a bite??
Caitlin said,
December 3, 2009 @ 9:54 pm
Intriguing, to say the least, Y. Vegemite has yet to enter my household, and it makes me a bit wary. But avocado + chocolate + coffee? Yep, I’m all for that!
frogpondsrock said,
December 6, 2009 @ 8:20 am
A vegemite ganache hmm? I am not too sure about that one.
Though I will admit that I haven’t had vegemite with my avocados on toast. I generally have capsicum,tomato and yoghourt. I will give it a try though.
I found your blog via a top 50 list done by Veronica of http://somedaywewillsleep.com. And after trawling through endless ezine types your blog is a lovely surprise. I have put you in my reader.
cheers Kim
clumbsycookie said,
December 6, 2009 @ 8:57 am
What a fun dessert Y! If you haven’t told they were baked, I don’t think I would have guessed!
Vera said,
December 12, 2009 @ 8:54 am
You are a Queen of plated desserts, Y! Stunning!
fairy_mi said,
December 13, 2009 @ 1:54 am
Wtg for the beautiful and original performance for the challenge!
Lovely presentation
and your photographs are always a pleasure to watch
Wtg!
And greetings from Israel
Inbal
(also a DB)
Beth said,
January 14, 2010 @ 8:26 am
beautifully presented!
Stacey said,
October 19, 2010 @ 2:07 am
Love the dessert! How did you do the chocolate decor?
Y said,
October 24, 2010 @ 10:56 am
Hi Stacey! Thanks for the comment. The chocolate decor is just a piped chocolate tuile.