Cannoli Bites

So, my daughter has been asking for this and here we go. I made again the cannoli bites I had previously done, with a few modifications.
The biggest modification: instead of using store-bought pie crust, I made it from scratch. I also reduced the amount of powdered sugar and substituted some regular sugar to try and reduce the chalky after taste.

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Cannoli filling

Ingredients:
1 cup of ricotta cheese
1 cup of mascarpone
1/2 cup of powdered sugar
up to 1/4 cup regular sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Drain ricotta cheese. Put in processor until smooth.
2. Add the mascarpone, the sugar and the vanilla to taste. Mix until smooth.
3. Keep in the fridge.
   

Pie crust

For the pie crust, I followed the system described on this website: 3-2-1. Three parts flour to two parts fat to 1 part ice water. All ingredients should be weighed instead of volume measured.

Directions:

1. In a bowl, mix your dry ingredients (flour, sugar and salt) with a whisk.
2. Add the butter, softened. Using your fingertips or dough blender until the dough resembles rough sand.
3. Add ice water a little at a time until you have a smooth dough ball. Use saran wrap and keep it in the fridge for an hour.
4. Take the dough out of the fridge and spread with a rolling pin until the desired thickness.
5. Bake in the oven at 350 for 17 minutes (as mini-cups - it might be different for a full-size pie).
   

Notes:

• The dough felt very sticky. I added a bit of flour and it was ok but with the heat, it kept getting sticky again. So I'd wrap it again and put it in the fridge for more time.
• For the purpose of this recipe, I spread some cinnamon sugar on top of the dough. You can also include the cinnamon sugar into the dough instead of the regular sugar.
• I cut circles that were too big for my mini-muffin pans. So I bought some round biscuit cutters to make sure next time they would be the right size (2.5").
• The dough came out very crumbly. Good taste but a bit dry, I think because of the size of the circles. Smaller circles of dough would have guaranteed a better dough/filling ratio.
• This dough would be really good with a fruit pie with cream. You need something to compensate for the dryness/crumbliness. I'd compare this dough to the "pate sablee" in French.
• I need to figure out the oven temperature and baking time.
• I want to try other recipes for the cannoli tartlet/shell (not fried though).