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Egg Nog Cannoli

I saw a tweet from @ourcookquest that simply said “Egg Nog Ricotta” and I instantly was intrigued by the idea. My first thought was to buy store bought egg nog and follow the cheese making method to separate it, but I didn’t think it was going to work because there is a lot of junk in commercial egg nog, especially stabilizers and thickeners that would prevent it from separating. I then thought to do this with homemade egg nog, but I realized that the egg would cook before the milk separated, and there would be coagulated eggs mixed in with my cheese curds. Gross. Finally I realized that I was using this as cannoli filling anyway, so I could just do a nutmeg infused ricotta, and then mix it with bourbon pudding to form a perfectly nog-flavored mixture that was just the right texture for cannoli.
Have you guys ever made cheese before? You just heat up the milk and then pour in some acid until it separates. The specks here are nutmeg.  Honestly this is more of a mascarpone than a ricotta but who's paying attention anyways? In goes the lemon juice. And out comes the curds. Let it strain for several hours to thicken up. Here is the nice thick cheese. I didn't take any pictures of making the pudding because making pudding is boring. On to the shells, I used a gluten free recipe so that my roommate could eat some, but you can use whatever recipe you want. Wrap it around a metal tube you have and pop it into the fryer. Mine came loose from the tube fairly quickly so I removed it so that I could get another one on there and not spend a million hours doing this. I just made sure it stayed in the cannoli shape with my tongs. Yea, these were good. Very good. The thick creamy texture of the filling is perfect and goes great with the crunchy shells. You know, cannolis guys. The filling was perfect though. Tasted just like egg nog.
I used this gluten free recipe for the shells so my roommate could eat them and it turned out great. Use whatever shell recipe you like.

Egg Nog Cannoli

For:  20 Cannoli

Preparation
60 min.
Ready in
300 min.
  • Nutmeg Mascarpone
  • 2 Quarts Milk
  • 1 Pint Light Cream
  • 1 Tablespoon Nutmeg
  • 3 Tablespoons Lemon Juice
  • Bourbon Pudding
  • 1/3 Cup Sugar
  • 3 Tablespoons Cornstarch
  • 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
  • 2 Cups Whey (leftover liquid from cheesemaking)
  • 1/3 Cup Bourbon
  • 3 Egg Yolks
  • 3 Tablespoons Butter

Instructions

    Cheese
    1. For the Cheese - Mix the milk, cream, and nutmeg in a thick bottom pan and place in a candy thermometer. Turn on medium heat. Stir often and watch it. When it gets to 178 remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice. Allow to sit for 20 minutes. Gently strain the curds and put in a mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth (or a paper towel). Reserve the whey for the pudding recipe. Strain in the fridge for about 5 hours to thicken up.
    Pudding
    1. Mix the ingredients (except for the butter and bourbon) Turn on medium and whisk and cook until it begins to bubble. Reduce to low and cook for 3 minutes stirring constantly. You should notice a texture change. Remove from heat and stir in the bourbon and butter. Pour through a strainer. Place in a jar and cover with plastic wrap touching the surface so it does not form a skin.
    Put it together
    1. I used the gluten free recipe for the shells linked above
    2. Fold/whisk in just enough pudding into the mascarpone until you get the desired texture for the cannoli. I first tried to do this in a food processor but the whole thing became too liquidy. Luckily I only did it with a little bit of the cheese and pudding.
    3. When you get the texture perfect, pipe the filling into the cooled shells! Save this step until just before you want to eat them.
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