Cannoli Filled Cream Puffs!! August Daring Bakers Challenge

This months Daring Bakers challenge was taken from a book called, Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme’.
I knew I was going to like this the minute I saw the recipe, because it only had 3 elements to it! Choux pastry, or cream puff dough, some kind of pastry cream, and a chocolate glaze.

Then there was the fact that our dear Host’s MeetaK and Tony Tahhan, kindly gave us culinary leeway to choose what ever filling we wanted, along with the size and shape of our choice, which made it even better!!

Of course my choice was to stuff these little mini babies with cannoli filling. The filling consisted of ricotta, which was made smooth by putting it into a food processor, along with some powdered sugar for sweetness, after which I added some rum, grated orange rind, just the slightest hint of cinnamon, and mini chocolate chips.

To make it less dense, I folded in some freshly whipped cream.

After glazing the top with chocolate, I finished it off with some chopped pistachio’s.

The biggest problem I had was working with the pastry bag! Everything was squishing out the top, I think my bag was too small. So after one attempt with it, I quickly switched to a gallon size Ziploc bag. I would appreciate any hints to working neatly with a pastry bag!

Other than that only issue, everything else was a breeze! I would definitely make these again!

For the complete recipe please click on our Host’s link above.

And please go check out some of the other Daring Bakers creations here.

Buon Appetito!!

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Grab A Cannoli, And Come Share My Blogoversary

Well it’s finally here, the 1st anniversary of Proud Italian Cook! I can’t believe a year has gone by already. I remember before I started this blog, I would browse the Internet and check out all of the food blogs out there, looking at all the beautiful photo’s and reading great stories , and learning about different cultures and food traditions. Having a passion for cooking I wanted to have my own blog but thought it would be impossible for me, how would I start it? How did they get those pictures on line? Remember, I’m from the non-techie generation!

One day my daughter was over and I was showing her some of my favorite blogs and I was saying to her that I wish I could have one of my own. Of course her response was,”I can set you up in about a half hour with your own blog!” What? really? I said. “Yeah, pick a name for it” In the meantime she was typing faster than the speed of light asking me what color background, what font, etc and all the other things you have to do to set up a blog.” Come on Mom! Pick a name I gotta go home” Are you kidding me? You’re just going to leave now? I said. As soon as I came up with Proud Italian Cook she was done with everything else. ” It’s all done, see? I gotta go now”. “Read up on it Mom, you can do it, Bye!”

Needless to say her phone was ringing off the hook from me, question after question, I even gave her my passwords so she could upload my photos from her house, she’s a night owl and so am I,
so many a night I’d be calling her to help me.

Then I noticed the answering machine going on a little more often then before, Hmmm, was that a hint? I did hear her say she created a monster once! So baby step, by baby step, I slowly learned about blogging.

All that being said, if it wasn’t for her, no way would I have started this! So thank you Vanessa! and the rest of my family, for putting up with me.

I’m looking forward to the year to come, maybe I’ll even figure out what bandwidth is, or how to do a widget, or even a gadget!!

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AN INVASION OF BUNNIES & A TRIP TO THE BAKERY!!!

For the last couple of days I’ve been helping my girlfriend prepare for a baby shower she is giving for her daughter this weekend. This will be her first Grandchild and as you can imagine she is so excited. Being the friend that I am, I had told her about a shower that I went to over the summer that had these cute little Bunnies made out of washcloths and shower puffs, as party favors. What was I thinking???? So we Googled the directions and off to the craft store she went, buying little eyes, ribbon, and everything else she needed. No problem I thought, we only had to make 36, we could pull this off in no time!!! WRONG!!! She arrived at my house at 9:00 pm after I put a big pot of coffee on. How hard could it be? Well, the folding of the washcloth was hard to figure out! It took us almost 2 hrs. to finally master that! Then we had to figure out how to attach the shower puff, and finally, we had to hot glue all the nose and eyes on. She left my house close to 2:00 am!!! But after about 5 hrs…….

These cute little Bunnies were born!! Aren’t they adorable??? I just had to share them with you!!…. Needless to say, I dreamt of Bunnies that night!!….. Now, on to the bakery part.

Her daughter requested ONE thing only if she was to have a shower, she wanted a Cannoli cake!! My friend, not being of Italian decent,knew I would point her in the right direction. So off we went to my favorite Italian bakery to order her cake!
When I told the Hubby where we were going, he got so excited and said ” make sure you bring me home something!” So with my camera in tow this time, I thought I’d share some pictures with you.

Crunchy, flaky, and creamy “Sfogliatelle !!!”

Don’t these look good?????

Check out the cookies!!!!!! All butter!!!! We each bought a few to have later with coffee, they never made it home ( ha ha)

Hubby’s favorite, fig cookies, like his Mom use to make!!

And finally, this was his little treat that was waiting for him after dinner! Sfogliatelle, and Cannoli. Oh, and by the way, the Cannoli is to die for!!! made fresh to order, creamy and good with a nice and crunchy shell…. I have to say the Cannoli is my favorite!!!

Chicago still has many great Italian bakeries around, but they are getting few and far between. Some of the fantastic ones I remember as a kid are gone, and as the owners are getting up in age it seems the “new generation” of kids aren’t as eager to carry on with the family tradition. Oh, so sad!!! But for now, we’ll savor the “special ones” that are left!!!!

Have a great day!!!!

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