My First Daring Baker's Challenge!

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.

I've never eaten a cannolo nor have I ever made cannolo, so this challenge was a REAL challenge for me. After discussing the challenge with BF who point-blank told me he didn't like cannoli, I had to figure out a way that he and dad-in-law would eat them (mom-in-law would eat the original in a heartbeat after taking a Lactaid pill).

I figured I would bake the shells rather than deep fry them to decrease the grease involved and make the dessert seem more health conscious and replaced the traditional dairy filling of ricotta with an apple pie-like substitute. Topped off with some roasted sliced almonds and we have a completed first challenge!

Baked Cannoli with Apple Pie Filling and Almonds

The shells weren't as crunchy as fried ones, but they were still really tasty

 

BF thought they were an interesting take on cannoli. I think I'll have to try the original recipe another day when we're not so stuffed from all the Thanksgiving food