This month’s Daring Bakers’ challenge was courtesy of Lauren. A Canadian, she wanted to nod towards her heritage and show us this famed Canadian recipe. Lauren has Celiac disease and therefore can’t eat gluten, so the crackers are gluten-free. Luckily for those of us who couldn’t find the flours, or found them too costly, she gave an alternative for plain flour.

If you can get the gluten-free flours, I would have to recommend it because the feedback from those bakers who made both versions has been that the gluten-free was better!

We adored these honeyed graham crackers made with plain flour, so don’t hesitate to try them. They are so crisp, crunchy and well, just so tasty! Dunked into a mug of coffee… well, it not only knocked digestive biscuits into a cocked hat, it rendered them unconscious too.

The Nanaimo bars were nothing like what I expected. Incredibly rich, they only need to be cut into 1″ pieces. The bottom layer is almost brownie, even fudge-like. The middle layer is basically a buttercream – I would half the quantity next time.

So you cut your 1″ pieces.

Then you might find you repeatedly sneak back to the fridge for yet another 1″ piece. Just fab. Thanks Lauren!

Home-made graham wafers, turned into nanaimo bars – OK, so us Brits are not au fait with these. Trust me. You’re going to want to make these.

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First make the crackers.

Into your food processor, combine your flour(s), brown sugar, baking soda and salt. Pulse to incorporate, then add cubed butter and pulse…

until it’s the texture of coarse meal

In a jug, whisk together the honey, milk and vanilla. Add to the flour mix and pulse until it barely comes together

Turn out onto a floured surface and pat into a rectangle. This plain flour dough is very crumbly (the gluten-free dough is apparently very sticky)

Halve the dough, wrap each part in clingfilm and chill until firm – 2 hrs will do it.

On a floured surface, roll one half into a long rectangle, about 1/8″ thick and cut into shapes – prick a pretty pattern in if you wish.

Place them on parchment lined sheets (I did one tray with parchment, one with silpat – no noticeable difference.), chill on the baking sheets for about 30 mins

Bake for around 12 minutes until golden brown.

The gluten-free ones take more like 25 mins.

Dunk it in coffee now. It’s the law.

Be sure to keep aside about 6oz of them for the Nanaimo bars though.

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Now to the Nanaimo bars:

Melt butter, sugar and cocoa in a double boiler

Add a beaten egg and stir to cook and thicken (I love the change when you add egg. Alchemy, man)

Remove from the heat and add some of your graham crackers that you have smashed to crumbs, some coconut (I dry-fried mine) and nuts. I was a bit short of nuts, so I added a handful of Rice Krispies to make up the volume.

Stir together and smooth into a foil-lined 8″ square pan. Chill.

The middle layer is buttercream with some custard powder added. Beat that together and smooth over the bottom layer. Chill. * I might consider halving, or at least reducing the quantity for this layer next time. Either that, or changing it to a marscapone/cream cheese combo… mmmmmmm*

Finally, the top layer. Melt chocolate and some unsalted butter over a low heat. Once cool, pour over the middle layer. Chill.

When you cut it, you oo0h and ahhhh at its prettiness.

Then you drool. Most unattractive to drool, but inevitable, I’m afraid.

See this bar? You’ll want to cut this crossways. Honestly, joking aside, this stuff is rich, baby.

This month’s challenge is from Lauren:

For Gluten-Free Graham Wafers
Ingredients
1 cup (138 g) (4.9 ounces) Sweet rice flour (also known as glutinous rice flour)
3/4 cup (100 g) (3.5 ounces) Tapioca Starch/Flour
1/2 cup (65 g) (2.3 ounces) Sorghum Flour

*(or for gluten eaters, 2 1/2 plus 2 tbsp plain flour)*

1 cup (200 g) (7.1 ounces) Dark Brown Sugar, Lightly packed
1 teaspoon (5 mL) Baking soda
3/4 teaspoon (4 mL ) Kosher Salt
7 tablespoons (100 g) (3 ½ ounces) Unsalted Butter (Cut into 1-inch cubes and frozen)
1/3 cup (80 mL) Honey, Mild-flavoured such as clover.
5 tablespoons (75 mL) Whole Milk
2 tablespoons (30 mL) Pure Vanilla Extract

Directions:
1. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, combine the flours, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. Pulse on low to incorporate. Add the butter and pulse on and off, until the mixture is the consistency of a coarse meal. If making by hand, combine aforementioned dry ingredients with a whisk, then cut in butter until you have a coarse meal. No chunks of butter should be visible.
2. In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together the honey, milk and vanilla. Add to the flour mixture until the dough barely comes together. It will be very soft and sticky.
3. Turn the dough onto a surface well-floured with sweet rice flour and pat the dough into a rectangle about 1 inch thick. Wrap in plastic and chill until firm, about 2 hours, or overnight.
4. Divide the dough in half and return one half to the refrigerator. Sift an even layer of sweet rice flour onto the work surface and roll the dough into a long rectangle, about 1/8 inch thick. The dough will be quite sticky, so flour as necessary. Cut into 4 by 4 inch squares. Gather the scraps together and set aside. Place wafers on one or two parchment-lined baking sheets. Chill until firm, about 30 to 45 minutes. Repeat with the second batch of dough.
5. Adjust the rack to the upper and lower positions and preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius).
6. Gather the scraps together into a ball, chill until firm, and reroll. Dust the surface with more sweet rice flour and roll out the dough to get a couple more wafers.
7. Prick the wafers with toothpick or fork, not all the way through, in two or more rows.
8. Bake for 25 minutes, until browned and slightly firm to the touch, rotating sheets halfway through to ensure even baking. Might take less, and the starting location of each sheet may determine its required time. The ones that started on the bottom browned faster.
9. When cooled completely, place enough wafers in food processor to make 1 ¼ cups (300 mL) of crumbs. Another way to do this is to place in a large ziplock bag, force all air out and smash with a rolling pin until wafers are crumbs.

Nanaimo Bars
Ingredients:

For Nanaimo Bars — Bottom Layer
1/2 cup (115 g) (4 ounces) Unsalted Butter
1/4 cup (50 g) (1.8 ounces) Granulated Sugar
5 tablespoons (75 mL) Unsweetened Cocoa
1 Large Egg, Beaten
1 1/4 cups (300 mL) (160 g) (5.6 ounces) Gluten Free Graham Wafer Crumbs (See previous recipe)
1/2 cup (55 g) (1.9 ounces) Almonds (Any type, Finely chopped) *I used pecans that were dry-fried*
1 cup (130 g) (4.5 ounces) Coconut (Shredded, sweetened or unsweetened) * I dry-fried mine to get that irresistable toasted coconut flavour*

For Nanaimo Bars — Middle Layer *Consider reducing this quantity if you’re not an icing fan*
1/2 cup (115 g) (4 ounces) Unsalted Butter
2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons (40 mL) Heavy Cream
2 tablespoons (30 mL) Vanilla Custard Powder (Such as Bird’s. Vanilla pudding mix may be substituted.)
2 cups (254 g) (8.9 ounces) Icing Sugar

For Nanaimo Bars — Top Layer
4 ounces (115 g) Semi-sweet chocolate
2 tablespoons (28 g) (1 ounce) Unsalted Butter

Directions:
1. For bottom Layer: Melt unsalted butter, sugar and cocoa in top of a double boiler. Add egg and stir to cook and thicken. Remove from heat. Stir in crumbs, nuts and coconut. Press firmly into an ungreased 8 by 8 inch pan.
2. For Middle Layer: Cream butter, cream, custard powder, and icing sugar together well. Beat until light in colour. Spread over bottom layer.
3. For Top Layer: Melt chocolate and unsalted butter over low heat. Cool. Once cool, pour over middle layer and chill.

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Additional Information:

These bars freeze very well, so don’t be afraid to pop some into the freezer.

The graham wafers may be kept in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. Mine lasted about that long.

If making the graham crackers with wheat, replace the gluten-free flours (tapioca starch, sweet rice flour, and sorghum flour) with 2 ½ cups plus 2 tbsp of all-purpose wheat flour, or wheat pastry flour. Watch the wheat-based graham wafers very closely in the oven, as they bake faster than the gluten-free ones, sometimes only 12 minutes.

My first daring bakers challenge!

Lisa was the host and she selected cannolis. I have never had cannolis; I had heard of them because I used to make a cannoli cake that was filled with ricotta, cream, orange and choc chips. Now I know why.

I had also heard Tony Soprano referring to them a lot. That wasn’t necessarily a recommendation; after all, he talked about murder a lot too.

So Tone was wrong about the murdering, but oh… so very right about the cannoli.

So the flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt and cocoa go into a medium bowl

Add the oil, Marsala and white wine vinegar and stir and squidge to make a stiff-ish dough

Once together, knead for a couple of minutes until it’s smooth, then seal in a bag and refrigerate for at least 2 hours – I left mine overnight.

Cut the dough into quarters and roll one quarter out until it’s thin enough to go through a pasta machine

Put the dough through the pasta machine – I initially rolled it through 1, then 3, then 5, then 6.

7 is the highest setting, but that was a little too thin for my liking.

Now. The cannoli forms. There was great debate on what to use. People were sawing up wooden handles, going bizarre things with foil and all sorts. I spoke to the friendly people in my local cake decorating shop and they were kind enough to order me some cannoli (stainless steel) forms. Lisa said that dried cannelloni shells worked too, so I stocked up on a box of them just in case.

Heated a pan of oil to 350-375F. I have watched Fireman Sam so many times, I actually had a wet tea towel next to me. You can cook 2 at a time, but I did one at a time – far less stressful and they do need attention in the oil, turning, grabbing – that kind of thing. They took no time at all to cook. Apparently, good cannoli are blistered and that’s our goal. Mine blistered and I nearly wept with relief and joy.

This is what the cannelloni shells looked like after I had removed the cooked cannoli. Say that fast again.

And here they are…..

Cannoli shells!

Now to the filling. I wanted 3 different flavours. Traditionally they are filled with ricotta, but I find ricotta a bit too grainy to be completely satisfying, so I used equal quantities (250g) of ricotta and mascarpone.

I blended them together then separated them into 3 bowls.

First, traditional. So to the first bowl, I added the zest of 1 orange, around 3 tsp icing sugar and a handful of chocolate chips and stirring it all together.

Second, a little something to coax out the cinnamon flavour. So to the second bowl, I added some dry-fried pecans that I chopped and a good slug of maple syrup.

For the final bowl, I was thinking nougat, so I dry-fried some almonds, chopped them and also added a big glug of strong honey. If I really liked candied zest and glace cherries, I would have added those too.

Put it together and what do you get?

Maple syrup and pecan Cannoli.  Mmmmmmm

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Lisa’s recipe:
PRINT (opens in a new window)

CANNOLI SHELLS

2 cups (250 grams/16 ounces) all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons(28 grams/1 ounce) sugar
1 teaspoon (5 grams/0.06 ounces) unsweetened baking cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon (1.15 grams/0.04 ounces) ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon (approx. 3 grams/0.11 ounces) salt
3 tablespoons (42 grams/1.5 ounces) vegetable or olive oil
1 teaspoon (5 grams/0.18 ounces) white wine vinegar
Approximately 1/2 cup (approx. 59 grams/approx. 4 fluid ounces/approx. 125 ml) sweet Marsala or any white or red wine you have on hand
1 large egg, separated (you will need the egg white but not the yolk)
Vegetable or any neutral oil for frying – about 2 quarts (8 cups/approx. 2 litres)
1/2 cup (approx. 62 grams/2 ounces) toasted, chopped pistachio nuts, mini chocolate chips/grated chocolate and/or candied or plain zests, fruits etc.. for garnish
Confectioners’ sugar

Note – If you want a chocolate cannoli dough, substitute a few tablespoons of the flour (about 25%) with a few tablespoons of dark, unsweetened cocoa powder (Dutch process) and a little more wine until you have a workable dough (Thanks to Audax).

DIRECTIONS FOR SHELLS:
1. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer or food processor, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in the oil, vinegar, and enough of the wine to make a soft dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and well blended, about 2 minutes. Shape the dough into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest in the fridge from 2 hours to overnight.

2 Cut the dough into two pieces. Keep the remaining dough covered while you work. Lightly flour a large cutting or pastry board and roll the dough until super thin, about 1/16 to 1/8” thick (An area of about 13 inches by 18 inches should give you that). Cut out 3 to 5-inch circles (3-inch – small/medium; 4-inch – medium/large; 5-inch;- large. Your choice). Roll the cut out circle into an oval, rolling it larger and thinner if it’s shrunk a little.

3 Oil the outside of the cannoli tubes (You only have to do this once, as the oil from the deep fry will keep them well, uhh, oiled..lol). Roll a dough oval from the long side (If square, position like a diamond, and place tube/form on the corner closest to you, then roll) around each tube/form and dab a little egg white on the dough where the edges overlap. (Avoid getting egg white on the tube, or the pastry will stick to it.) Press well to seal. Set aside to let the egg white seal dry a little.

4. In a deep heavy saucepan, pour enough oil to reach a depth of 3 inches, or if using an electric deep-fryer, follow the manufacturer’s directions. Heat the oil to 375°F (190 °C) on a deep fry thermometer, or until a small piece of the dough or bread cube placed in the oil sizzles and browns in 1 minute. Have ready a tray or sheet pan lined with paper towels or paper bags.

5. Carefully lower a few of the cannoli tubes into the hot oil. Do not crowd the pan. Fry the shells until golden, about 2 minutes, turning them so that they brown evenly.

8. Lift a cannoli tube with a wire skimmer or large slotted spoon, out of the oil. Using tongs, grasp the cannoli tube at one end. Very carefully remove the cannoli tube with the open sides straight up and down so that the oil flows back into the pan. Place the tube on paper towels or bags to drain. Repeat with the remaining tubes. While they are still hot, grasp the tubes with a potholder and pull the cannoli shells off the tubes with a pair of tongs, or with your hand protected by an oven mitt or towel. Let the shells cool completely on the paper towels. Place shells on cooling rack until ready to fill.

9. Repeat making and frying the shells with the remaining dough. If you are reusing the cannoli tubes, let them cool before wrapping them in the dough.

Pasta Machine method:

1. Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces. Starting at the middle setting, run one of the pieces of dough through the rollers of a pasta machine. Lightly dust the dough with flour as needed to keep it from sticking. Pass the dough through the machine repeatedly, until you reach the highest or second highest setting. The dough should be about 4 inches wide and thin enough to see your hand through

2. Continue rolling out the remaining dough. If you do not have enough cannoli tubes for all of the dough, lay the pieces of dough on sheets of plastic wrap and keep them covered until you are ready to use them.

3, Roll, cut out and fry the cannoli shells as according to the directions above.

For stacked cannoli:
1. Heat 2-inches of oil in a saucepan or deep sauté pan, to 350-375°F (176 – 190 °C).

2. Cut out desired shapes with cutters or a sharp knife. Deep fry until golden brown and blistered on each side, about 1 – 2 minutes. Remove from oil with wire skimmer or large slotted spoon, then place on paper towels or bags until dry and grease free. If they balloon up in the hot oil, dock them lightly prior to frying. Place on cooling rack until ready to stack with filling.

My fillings:

250g ricotta
250g marscapone

toasted almonds, chopped
honey to taste

toasted pecans, chopped
maple syrup to taste

rind 1 orange
handful chocolate chips
3 tsp icing sugar

Blend the ricotta and marscapone together and separate into 3 bowls.
Into one bowl, add the almonds and honey, the second bowl the maple and pecans, the third bowl the orange, icing sugar and choc chips. Stir to combine.

ASSEMBLE THE CANNOLI:

1. When ready to serve..fill a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch plain or star tip, or a ziplock bag, with the ricotta cream. If using a ziplock bag, cut about 1/2 inch off one corner. Insert the tip in the cannoli shell and squeeze gently until the shell is half filled. Turn the shell and fill the other side. You can also use a teaspoon to do this, although it’s messier and will take longer.

2. Press or dip cannoli in chopped pistachios, grated chocolate/mini chocolate chips, candied fruit or zest into the cream at each end. Dust with confectioner’s sugar and/or drizzles of melted chocolate if desired.

TIPS AND NOTES:
- Dough must be stiff and well kneaded
- Rolling the dough to paper thinness, using either a rolling pin or pasta machine, is very important. If the dough is not rolled thin enough, it will not blister, and good cannoli should have a blistered surface.
- Initially, this dough is VERY stubborn, but keep rolling, it eventually gives in. Before cutting the shapes, let the dough rest a bit, covered, as it tends to spring back into a smaller shapes once cut. Then again, you can also roll circles larger after they’re cut, and/or into ovals, which gives you more space for filling.
- Your basic set of round cutters usually doesn’t contain a 5-inch cutter. Try a plastic container top, bowl etc, or just roll each circle to 5 inches. There will always be something in your kitchen that’s round and 5-inches if you want large cannoli.
- Oil should be at least 3 inches deep and hot – 360°F-375°F, or you’ll end up with greasy shells. I prefer 350°F – 360°F because I felt the shells darkened too quickly at 375°F.
- If using the cannoli forms, when you drop the dough on the form into the oil, they tend to sink to the bottom, resulting in one side darkening more. Use a slotted spoon or skimmer to gently lift and roll them while frying.
- DO NOT crowd the pan. Cannoli should be fried 2-4 at a time, depending on the width of your saucepan or deep fryer. Turn them once, and lift them out gently with a slotted spoon/wire skimmer and tongs. Just use a wire strainer or slotted spoon for flat cannoli shapes.
- When the cannoli turns light brown – uniform in color, watch it closely or remove it. If it’s already a deep brown when you remove it, you might end up with a really dark or slightly burnt shell.
- Depending on how much scrap you have left after cutting out all of your cannoli shapes, you can either fry them up and sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar for a crispy treat, or let the scraps rest under plastic wrap and a towel, then re-roll and cut more cannoli shapes.