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Enjoy a true Italian cannoli without even leaving the house. The outer shell is deep fried to a crisp and filled with a sweet, creamy ricotta mixture. Dusted with powdered sugar and sprinkle with mini chocolate chips.
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This homemade ItalianCannoliricotta recipe is better than the Italian bakeries and Italian restaurants! Acreamy and luscious filling piped into a flaky fried shell. Thendusted with powdered sugar and sprinkled with mini chocolate chips. Each batch only takes 3 minutes to cook. One recipe makes up to 24 cannoli, so it can feed a crowd!
There is just something about a fried dessert that cannot be compared to others! A crispy outside followed by a sweet gooey inside, simply delicious! The same goes forcherry cheesecake tacos. While they aren’t a traditional cannoli, they do have a fried shell with a creamy cheesecake filling that you will love.
Make it an Italian inspired night by kicking off dinner with a simple side salad topped with homemade croutons, followed by Italian Sausage Pasta or this easy lasagna recipe, and end with a homemade cannoli filled with a creamy and sweet ricotta cheese. Want to experiment with other easy deep-fried desserts? Try these oreos, cheesecake bites, and strawberry shortcake.
Jump to:
- Why You’ll Love This Cannoli Recipe
- 🍫 Ingredients:
- Substitutions and Variations
- 🔪 Instructions:
- Recipe Tips for Homemade Cannoli Ricotta Recipe
- Fun Facts:
- More Mouthwatering Desserts To Try
- The Best Cannoli Recipe
Why You’ll Love This Cannoli Recipe
- These homemade treats are better than the bakeries.
- Practice your baking skills using a new recipe.
- A full batch is ready in less than 1 hour.
- Perfect for special occasions when you want to WOW a crowd.
🍫 Ingredients:
- All-purpose flour – for the cannoli crust.
- Sugar – Granulated sugar.
- Salt – enhances the flavors in the crust.
- Unsalted butter – keep it cold until you are ready to use it.
- Egg yolk – keep the egg whites for the filling
- Marsala wine – this adds a richness to the crust
- White vinegar
- Ricotta – a smooth sweet cheese for the creamy ricotta filling. I use whole milk ricotta.
- Heavy whipping cream – adds thickness to the filling
- Powdered sugar – helps make the filling sweet
- Vanilla extract – enhances the flavors
- Cinnamon – why not…its cinnamon and its perfect in this filling
- Mini chocolate chips – for that added chocolate touch
For a full list of ingredients and their measurements, 📋 please view my printable recipe card at the bottom of the post.
Substitutions and Variations
- Cannoli filling can also include orange peel, orange zest, lemon zest, candied fruits, pistachios, and/or maraschino cherries.
- You can also omit the chocolate chips or ad in fresh raspberries or diced strawberries.
- Try to dust with a 50/50 mixture of powdered sugar and cocoa powder OR drizzle melted chocolate over the tops.
- To make this more simple, you can purchase a pastry dough and use that instead of homemaking your own.
- You can also purchase a mini cannoli form for smaller sweets
Before you start: Make sure you have cannoli forms or cannoli tubes.While there are a few DIY supplies you can use, the mold is the easiest. You can get the set that I have that includes the mold, tube, and cutter.
🔪 Instructions:
PREP: Summarize prep instructions here, if applicable.
Step 1: Pulse the flour, sugar, and salt in the food processor. Add the cold butter pieces and pulse until crumbly and you can no longer see the butter. Add the marsala wine and egg yolk. Mix until the dough comes together.
Step 2:Knead the dough on a floured work surface until smooth. Chill in a covered bowl in the refrigerator for 30-60 minutes.
PRO TIP: When kneading, this adds air into the dough, which leads to more bubbles when it is cooked. Brushing the egg whitewash also adds bubbles to the shells. To make sure the dough doesn’t dry out, keep it covered when you aren’t working with it.
Step 3: Drain the ricotta using a fine mesh sieve for at least 30 minutes. Beat the heavy cream in a medium bowl until stiff peaks form. Mix in the powdered sugar. Cover and chill until you are ready to fill.
Step 4:Pour 5 inches of oil into a Dutch oven and heat until the temperature reaches 350 degrees. Spray non-stick spray on the cannoli mold. Roll out the dough with a rolling pin as thin as possible. Use a biscuit cutter to cut out as many circles as possible. Wrap a dough circle around the mold and seal the edges with egg whites.
Step 5:Lower the shells down in the hotoil and fry until golden brown. Remove the forms white the cannoli is still warm.
Step 6:Fill the shells using a piping bag with the ricotta creammixture once they have cooled completely.
Step 7: Sprinkle chocolate chips and dust with powdered sugar.
Recipe Tips for Homemade Cannoli Ricotta Recipe
- When sealing the dough on the forms, add a light egg wash on one side.
- There are various sizes of forms. We used a 4.5 inch one here.
- If the cannoli sits on the form for too long after frying, it’s harder to remove it. This is why we recommend taking these off while the shells are still warm.
- Use a long set of tongs to rotate the cannoli in the oil. Make sure it’s not burning or sticking to the bottom. You want it to fry as evenly as possible.
- Fry in batches to avoid overcrowding the pan.
- Once you have wrapped the dough around the mold, curl the ends to help get more oil in the shell.
- Use a thermometer to monitor the oil temperature. Throughout the cooking process you will have to adjust the heat.
Fun Facts:
This Italian dessert came to the USA with the great Sicilian migration in the 1880s and inspired one of the most memorable Hollywood film quotes of all time: “Leave the gun. Take the cannoli” (The Godfather, 1972). It became more popular when the Italian bakery started selling it.
Recipe FAQs
Should Homemade Cannoli shells be served cold?
Traditionally, cannoli’s are served either at room temperature or cold, but never served hot.
How long will Cannoli’s last?
Cannoli’s are best when eaten immediately. Unfilled crispy shells can be kept at room temperature for a couple of days in an airtight container, but once they are filled with their cannoli cream fillingthey start to become soggy in several hours.
What is ricottacannoli filling made of?
Cannoli’s are traditionally filled with a slightly sweet and creamy filling made withricotta cheese, sugar and cream. After you fill your Cannoli’s you can roll the ends of the filling in nuts or other toppings, or you can sprinkle them on top of the ricotta cheese filling.
More Mouthwatering Desserts To Try
-
Bailey’s Chocolate Cheesecake Trifle
-
Brownie Bottom Cheesecake
-
Cherry Cheesecake Tacos
-
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
If you tried this Homemade Cannoli Recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how you liked it in the 📝 comments below.
5 from 56 votes
Created by: Stefanie
The Best Cannoli Recipe
Course Dessert
Cuisine American, Italian
Prep Time 30 minutes minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes minutes
Total Time 50 minutes minutes
24
Enjoy a true Italian cannoli without even leaving the house. The outer shell is deep fried to a crisp and filled with a sweet, creamy ricotta mixture. Dusted with powdered sugar and sprinkle with mini chocolate chips.
Equipment
Cannoli Tubes – Pastry Molds and Circle Cutter
24
Ingredients
Shell Ingredients:
- 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter cold
- 1 egg yolk reserve the whites
- ⅓ cup marsala wine
- 1 teaspoon white vinegar
Filling Ingredients:
- 16 oz. ricotta
- ½ cup heavy whipping cream
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon Mini chocolate chips
Instructions
In the bowl of a food processor, pulse together flour, sugar, and salt until combined. Cut the cold butter into small pieces and sprinkle over the flour mixture. Pulse the food processor several more times until the mixture resembles coarse sand and the pieces of butter are no longer visible.
Add egg yolk and marsala wine to the flour/butter mixture and pulse until the dough comes together forming large clumps.
On a lightly floured surface, turn out the dough and knead for several minutes until it is smooth and pliable. Pat the dough into a round, place in a bowl covered with plastic wrap, and allow to rest for 30 minutes – 1 hour.
Meanwhile, prepare the cannoli filling. Place the ricotta in a fine mesh sieve over a bowl and drain for at least 30 minutes. You want to remove as much of the liquid as possible from the ricotta.
In a bowl, whisk (or beat) heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Add the powdered sugar to the cream and whisk to combine.
In a separate bowl, mix together the drained ricotta, vanilla, and cinnamon. Fold in the whipped cream. Cover and chill the filling until ready to fill the cannoli.
Fill a large Dutch oven 5-6 inches deep with vegetable oil. Heat over medium high until the oil reaches 350-360°F. You will need to adjust burner temp regularly during frying to maintain the oil’s temperature in this range.
Lightly spray a bit of non-stick oil on the cannoli forms to ensure the cannoli do not stick.
Divide the dough into 2 or 3 smaller pieces. Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough as thin as possible. Use a 4 ½” round biscuit cutter to cut as many circles form the dough as you can. Gather scraps and re-roll to cut additional circles. Gently wrap one circle around each cannoli form/tube, using a bit of the reserved egg whites to seal the two edges where they overlap on the form.
Carefully lower the cannoli form down into the hot oil. Fry, gently tossing the cannoli around in the oil to ensure it browns evenly on all sides. Lift from the oil and place it to drain on paper towels.
Using a towel to grip the cannoli in one hand, use a pair of tongs with the other hand to grip the cannoli form and pull it from the center of the cannoli. This should be done while the cannoli is still warm.
When the cannoli are cooled completely, use a piping bag to fill each shell with the prepared cannoli filling. Sprinkle mini chocolate chips over each end and dust the filled cannoli with powdered sugar.
Serve immediately (shells can be stored without filling for a day or two, but once filled, will become soggy after a couple hours.)
Notes
- When sealing the dough on the forms, add a light egg wash on one side.
- There are various sizes of forms. We used a 4.5 inch one here.
- If the cannoli sits on the form for too long after frying, it’s harder to remove it. This is why we recommend taking these off while the shells are still warm.
- Use a long set of tongs to rotate the cannoli in the oil. Make sure it’s not burning or sticking to the bottom. You want it to fry as evenly as possible.
- Fry in batches to avoid overcrowding the pan.
- To make sure the dough doesn’t dry out, keep it covered when you aren’t working with it.
- When kneading, this adds air into the dough, which leads to more bubbles when it is cooked. Brushing the egg wash also adds bubbles to the shells.
- Once you have wrapped the dough around the mold, curl the ends to help get more oil in the shell.
- Cannoli filling can also include orange peel, lemon zest, candied fruits, pistachios, and maraschino cherries.
- Use a thermometer to monitor the oil temperature. Throughout the cooking process you will have to adjust the heat.
Nutrition
Calories: 116kcal | Carbohydrates: 12g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 0.04g | Cholesterol: 26mg | Sodium: 43mg | Potassium: 39mg | Fiber: 0.3g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 198IU | Vitamin C: 0.03mg | Calcium: 46mg | Iron: 1mg
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