We all know that Italian cuisine is one of the richest with it’s extensive variety of pasta and pizza dishes as well as the seasonal produce, meat and fresh sea food. There is also a wide range of sweet treats that without one the meal isn’t over:):)
Everybody loves a good tiramisu, a creamy panna cotta served with fresh fruits or a nice big gelato whether it’s summer or not. Then there are these little bite size desserts of cream puffs, tartlets and so on called the “pasticcini”, and “cannoncino” is one sweet treat in that category and a personal favourite of mine :):)
I had my first cannoncino many many years ago and loved it the moment I took a bite of this puff pastry tube filled with a velvety pastry cream. I had a couple every chance I got, all the while thinking that it wasn’t quite perfect. It could be better with a crunchier pastry and a cream that was a little less sweet. Then I came across the metal tubes used to make the cannoncini and decided to have a go myself. I made about eighty cannoncini for my nephew’s birthday with only the six tubes I had which took me hours but it was all worth it as they were loved by everybody. Then my father in law made me some cannoncini tubes by cutting stainless steel plumbing pipes to the exact size I wanted, thanks to him I have so many now and they’ll last me a life time.
If you can’t get hold of cannoncini tubes you can use small ice cream cones covered with baking paper or you could make your own tubes or cones using some cardboard and covering them with baking paper.
- 2 sheets puff pastry (about 450 gr)
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 2 tbs of caster sugar
- CREMA PASTICCERA (Italian Pastry Cream)
- 450 ml milk
- 4 egg yolks
- 1 vanilla bean or 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 75 gr sugar
- 35 gr corn starch
- 25 gr butter
- We'll start with the pastry cream first. Bring milk to boil with the vanilla bean that's been previously split and seeds scraped. Remove from heat and let steep for half an hour.
- Whisk egg yolks with the sugar and the seeds from the vanilla bean for a few minutes until pale then add the corn starch and mix well.
- Reheat the milk to boiling point and pour slowly over the egg mixture while whisking continuously.
- Pour it all back into the saucepan and cook over medium heat until it thickens for about 5-6 minutes, stirring all the time.
- As it reaches boiling point remove from heat and mix in the butter.
- Cover with cling film to prevent a skin forming. When it comes to room temperature, refrigerate. Whisk cream with an electric mixer before using.
- Preheat oven to 180 C (about 350 F)
- Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface and cut half an inch wide strips. A thinner pastry assures a crunchier result.
- Wrap each cannoncini mold with baking paper then roll a pastry strip around it, overlapping the pastry with every turn.
- Brush them with egg wash and sprinkle sugar all over.
- Bake in preheated oven until golden, about 15-20 minutes.
- Cool for five minutes and remove from the molds.
- Once completely cool, fill with the pastry cream using a sac a poche. Lightly dust with icing sugar and serve.
One thing I never do when making pastry cream is adding the vanilla seeds to the milk. While heating a skin forms over the milk and the seeds get trapped, when you remove that skin you end up losing some of those precious seeds too. To avoid this I always add the seeds to the egg yolks and only the empty vanilla bean to the milk.
[…] nows the time to start. Hati of Hatibon has perfected a crunchier and less sweet version of Cannoncini in her […]