Chocolate Cannoli Dessert
Serves 8, Prep and Cook: 45 mins
200g pkt lattice biscuits ½ cup milk
700g fresh ricotta 600ml thickened cream 3 tsps vanilla extract
½ cup icing sugar mixture CHOCOLATE CUSTARD 200g block dark cooking
chocolate
½ cup custard powder 1 litre (4 cups) milk
¹⁄³ cup caster sugar
1 To make chocolate custard, use a vegetable peeler to shave 1 tblsp off the long, thin side of the chocolate into a bowl. Reserve for decoration. Finely chop remaining chocolate.
2 Whisk custard powder with ½ cup of the milk in a large saucepan until smooth. Gradually whisk in remaining milk and sugar until combined. Whisk over a medium heat for about 5 minutes, or until custard comes to the boil. Reduce heat to low.
3 Whisk for about 2 minutes or until custard is thickened. Remove saucepan from heat.
Whisk in chopped chocolate until melted. Set aside while preparing biscuits and ricotta.
4 You will need 15 biscuits (reserve remaining biscuits for another use).
5 Working with one biscuit at time, dip in milk for 3 seconds. Trimming to fit, arrange biscuits glazed-side down over the base of a 22cm x 33cm x 6cm-deep ovenproof dish (12-cup capacity). Reserve milk.
6 Crumble ricotta into a large bowl. Add reserved milk,
½ cup of the cream (refrigerate remaining cream until needed), vanilla and sugar. Whisk until well combined. Spread over biscuits in dish.
7 Whisk custard until smooth. Spread over ricotta layer. Cover dish with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight.
8 To serve, beat remaining cream with a hand-held electric mixer until soft peaks form. Fill a piping bag fitted with an 11mm star nozzle. Pipe cream over custard. Sprinkle with reserved chocolate.