]]>Ok, so I posted my Vegan Ricotta recipe late last week on a whim, it was a bonus post for the week. My feed EXPLODED with positive feedback, including many of you asking if I had managed to make a sweet ricotta for vegan cannoli yet. As you can imagine, I spent the better part of the next two days experimenting and fiddling around with the ricotta and cannoli recipes. Just so you know, I’ve NAILED it! My hubby says you can’t even tell the difference between my vegan cannoli filling and the traditional stuff.
These are sweet and creamy in a crisp shell that has the right amount of crunch that you want from a good quality cannoli. If you have been hankering a cannoli, these will definitely satisfy the craving! If you prefer pistachios or dried fruit in your cannoli, feel free to swap out the chocolate for your desired addition. This is really a blank slate base from which to build your favourite sweet Italian flavours! Please enjoy
So, as you know if you’ve been reading my blog, we moved across the country a few months ago and apparently I lost my cannoli tubes/molds in the move. Not one to be dissuaded from a challenge, I decided to see if I could BAKE the cannoli pastry in mini tarts and it worked! FYI: If you prefer to deep fry your cannolis with the tubes, this recipe is the very same. Just form them as you normally would and deep fry (I’ll include the instructions for both methods in the recipe below).
I’ve updated the ricotta recipe here so just use the “sweet” option when making the ricotta and then carry on with this recipe to turn the “sweet” ricotta into vegan cannoli filling.
The pastry is a simple pastry, akin to any pie crust. What gives cannoli shells their distinctive flavour is a bit of wine in the batter. If you don’t have wine or don’t want to use wine, you can simply use cold water. However, if you are able to use the wine I strongly advise doing so, it helps raise the cannoli-ness of the treat. Also, the traditional recipe for cannoli shells includes the use of one egg. I used 1 egg’s worth of Ener G egg replacer and it worked well. I suspect you could use a flax egg (I did not because I didn’t want the flax flecks in my crust) or possibly even omit the egg altogether.
To make the vegan cannoli crust:
Amass all your ingredients: Flour, shortening, sugar, cinnamon, wine, egg replacer
Cut the shortening into the flour until pea sized crumbs
Stir in the sugar and cinnamon
Gradually, 1 tablespoon at a time, mix in the wine
Mix in the egg replacer and enough more wine (1 tbsp at a time) to form a ragged dough
Form the dough into a ball and chill for 1-2 hours
After the dough has chilled, roll it out very thin (about 1/8th of an inch). If baking, cut out with 1.5-2″ round cutter for mini tarts. Dock each round with a fork to keep it from puffing during baking. (Frying instructions will appear in the recipe below)
Press into your mini muffin tin and bake at 350’F for 14-18 minutes (this will depend a bit on how thin you rolled out your dough) until just golden and quite crisp. Remove to a rack and let cool completely.
For the vegan cannoli filling:
Add sweet vegan ricotta, powdered sugar, and vanilla to a medium bowl.
Beat well with beaters and fold in the chocolate chips. Store in the fridge, this will thicken as it is chilled. If you are concerned about excess lumps you can press this through a fine mesh sieve.
To assemble the vegan cannoli:
Simply pipe or spoon filling into the baked and cooled tart shells and promptly devour! Bear in mind, fill the shells RIGHT before you are going to eat them otherwise the shells will get soggy. If you are frying the cannoli tubes, simply pipe the filling to the centre from each end.
]]>https://kindnesskitchen.ca/vegan-cannoli/feed/1993Vegan Ricotta made with Almonds and Tofu
https://kindnesskitchen.ca/vegan-ricotta/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=vegan-ricotta
https://kindnesskitchen.ca/vegan-ricotta/#commentsMon, 24 Jul 2017 03:36:44 +0000http://kindnesskitchen.ca/?p=928Here it is. I featured this ricotta as a part of my recipe for poutine, but as promised, here is my versatile vegan ricotta recipe. This ricotta is soft, creamy, slightly sweet, super versatile, great on its own or in a recipe, and super quick and easy to make. I eat this vegan ricotta all […]
]]>Here it is. I featured this ricotta as a part of my recipe for poutine, but as promised, here is my versatile vegan ricotta recipe. This ricotta is soft, creamy, slightly sweet, super versatile, great on its own or in a recipe, and super quick and easy to make.
I eat this vegan ricotta all the time. It’s great on toast and bagels, stirred into pasta, as a layer of lasagna or perogy casserole, in a wrap, dolloped on roasted veggies, or anywhere you would use a savoury application of ricotta. This particular recipe is not suited to sweet ricotta applications due to the garlic, however if you omit the garlic I would bet you could use it in a sweet application. I intend to experiment with this soon, so stay tuned for that (cannoli anyone?! :o).
**UPDATE** I have added the instructions in the recipe below for how to use this recipe for sweet applications (like my incredibly decadent vegan cannolis)!
As I’m writing this, I’m thinking about all kinds of vegan ricotta applications to try. Pesto and ricotta rigatoni, spinach and ricotta canneloni, ricotta and avocado toast with balsamic drizzle, ricotta on crackers… oh man, I have to wipe the drool off my keyboard!
For this ricotta I use a combination of almonds and tofu. I find the almonds contribute to that bit of sweetness you are used to from a traditional ricotta. The tofu helps with the softness (as well as affordability, it really helps stretch out the almonds to make more cheese).
How to make this cheezy delight:
To make this, first you take 1 cup of raw or blanched almonds and soak them for 3 hours or overnight.
Then drain the almonds. If using raw almonds, like I did, you will have to peel them. FEAR NOT, this is not hard! Once the almonds have soaked you just squeeze the nut and the skin pops right off. I was a skeptic, but it’s true. I watched 2 short youtube videos while I peeled my almonds, it only took about 10 minutes!
Next, you assemble the rest of your ingredients. Miso, yogurt, salt, olive oil, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, tofu, and garlic. If you don’t have non-dairy yogurt or sour cream you can use just a bit of unsweetened non-dairy milk in its place, start with half the amount in case it gets too thin. The yogurt simply helps give the cheese a cheesy tanginess.
Place all of the ingredients in the food processor and blitz away. Blend until it is the grainy texture of ricotta cheese. Taste. Add more lemon juice for tartness, salt for saltiness, olive oil for rich mouth-feel, or yogurt for tang.
Store in the fridge. This should keep for about 2 weeks covered in the fridge
Vegan Ricotta made with Almonds and Tofu (Sweet or Savoury versions)
This ricotta is ultra versatile. Below are the ingredients for either the sweet or savoury versions of this ricotta. Choose the best version for your purposes.
Prep Time 5 minutesminutes
Soaking time 3 hourshours
Total Time 3 hourshours5 minutesminutes
Servings 2cups
Ingredients
SAVOURY Ricotta
1cupsoaked peeled almondssoaked 3 hours or overnight
4ozextra firm tofunot silken
1clovegarlic
7tspolive oil(3 tbsp + 1 tsp)
1tbsplemon juice
1tbspnutritional yeast
1tspmiso
1/2tspsalt
3tbspnon-dairy yogurt or sour cream
SWEET Ricotta (for dessert-type applications)
4 ozextra firm tofunot silken
7tspcanola oil (or another neutral oil)(3 tbsp + 1 tsp)
1tbsplemon juice
1 tbspnutritional yeast
1/2 tsp salt
3tbspnon-dairy yogurt or sour cream
2 tbsppowdered sugar
1 tspvanillaoptional
Instructions
Soak the almonds in the fridge for at least 3 hours or overnight. If not already peeled, you must peel the almonds after they are soaked. This is easy, the soaked almonds slip right out of their skins.
Blend all the ingredients in a food processor until it is the texture of traditional ricotta.
Notes
-If you want your ricotta to be runnier/creamier then just add a bit more of the yogurt or a splash of unsweetened non-dairy milk.
If you make this recipe, please rate/commentbelow. Thanks!
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