Recipe Round-up: Canollis

I’ve been in the mood to bake the last couple weeks. Banana chocolate chip bread, regular bread, pumpkin chili, chocolate chip cookies. I’ve even done laundry and cleaned the house – twice! Apparently Laura Ingalls and Betty Crocker took over my body when I wasn’t looking.

Canollis are something my mom used to make when I was growing up. We packed our lunches to school, and these were the envy of everyone in the cafeteria. However, Adult Me has realized how finicky they are to make so they don’t happen very often.

Essentially, canollis are homemade hot pockets. Exactly, what’s not to love?

Roll out a chunk of dough. The recipe says “golf ball size”. Who has time to be that precise? By the way, this rolling pin? Heavy. Duty. I could take out a whole load of bad guys in a dark alley with this thing.

Place filling in center. I used a mixture of ground beef, onion, green pepper, and pizza sauce. Sausage and pepperoni make good fillings or a vegetarian mixture would work nicely as well. And cheese. There must be cheese, or they aren’t really canollis.

Fold sides over and pinch ends. Basically you smash the dough on top of itself and pray it stays. Sometimes it takes a lot of prayer.

If there was a contest for messiest baker west of the Mississippi, I’m pretty sure I would win. That’s why I employ an assistant each time I bake. He’s always happy to oblige, and he never asks for a raise.

I must not have dropped anything for awhile; he’s yawning. Or laughing. I’m not sure which.

Here they are. Ready to bake. Ideally they should be of similar size so they bake more uniformly. As you can see, ideals don’t seem to live long in my kitchen.

And here they are in all their canolli-goodness! Excellent piping hot, and they freeze well.

Canollis
Ingredients
3/4 c. milk
1/4 c. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/4 c. margarine
1/2 c. warm water
1 pkg. yeast (~2 1/4 tsp.)
1 egg
3 1/2 c. flour

Scald milk, stir in margarine, sugar and salt. Cool, dissolve yeast in warm water, add to milk. Add egg and 2 cups of flour. Beat til smooth. Stir in enough flour to make dough. Cover, and let rise.

Follow the steps pictured above, filling with whatever strikes your fancy, and bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes.