[Sca-cooks] Re: Sca-cooks Digest, Vol 19, Issue 40

[Martha Oser]

Berelinde wrote: 

<SNIP>
> Blend flour with oil until evenly dispersed. Add hot water
> to make a maleable, but not too sticky dough. 
> 
> Take gobs of dough and wrap them around the handle of a
> wooden spoon. Dip in hot oil until the dough puffs and
> starts to turn golden. The wooden spoon might not be good
> for much after this. If you had several wooden spoons, you
> could probably keep using them for this recipe, but they
> would forever be greasy and/or singed. 
> 
> It's tempting to say "plunge the hot dough (while still
> around the spoon) into honey, but I think it might just be
> easier to slide it off the spoon when just warm and drizzle
> generously with honey.
<SNIP> 

I tried this the first time I attempted this recipe - daubing the dough on 
the wooden dowel sections I was using as forms - and it didn't work too 
well.  The dough was lumpy and the resulting shells were, to be frank, ugly 
as all get-out and they didn't cook evenly.  I wouldn't have wanted to eat 
them.  I have a much better result from making the dough smooth enough to 
roll out with a rolling pin and cutting it to form around the dowels/cannoli 
tubes.  It still puffs up quite a bit in the frying. 

You are right in saying your wooden spoon won't be good for much after this 
application.  The ends of the dowel sections I've been using are quite a bit 
browner than they were when I started and have a definite, um, odor now.  I 
wouldn't want to abuse my wooden spoons that way.  A 3-foot dowel that you 
can cut down to the desired size is much, much cheaper. 

You are also right that it is much easier to slide the shell off the form 
before putting it in the honey.  If you wait very briefly (1-2 minutes at 
most) the shells come off quite easily - I think it has to do with the form 
cooling and shrinking slightly and the shell hardening as it cools.  It's 
much easier to wait a minute or two than to try to slide them off the form 
immediately.  Also, if you're using sections of dowel or metal cannoli 
tubes, keep some pliers on hand.  Regular pliers give you a good grip on the 
wooden dowel or needlenose pliers to grab the end of the metal tubes.  A 
folded paper towel or just your kitchen towel works to protect the hand that 
grasps the shell (gently!) to slide it off the form. 

 -Helena