With a rich creamy ricotta filling and a crisp exterior, these homemade cannolis are the perfect treat-yourself dessert.
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00:00Hey everyone, it's Frankie in the Delish Kitchen studios.
00:03I'm making one of my favorite desserts, the cannoli.
00:07And I grew up making cannolis at an Italian bakery.
00:10I got to learn how to make the dough, the cream.
00:12I filled them all the time.
00:15I can't wait to show you how to make them.
00:16We're using Calabro ricotta cheese.
00:19It's whole milk, and we are going to be straining it
00:22so that we can release some of the extra moisture
00:24that comes in the package with it.
00:26Typically, you would use a ricotta and pastata,
00:29but since you can't really find it,
00:30and if you do find it, it's pretty expensive.
00:33You have to kind of mimic it at home and make it yourself.
00:36Ricotta and pastata is a drier form of ricotta cheese.
00:39You would use ricotta and pastata because it's thicker
00:42and it results in a thicker cannoli cream.
00:44If you've ever had cannoli cream,
00:45you know exactly what I'm talking about.
00:47You have a bowl and a fine mesh strainer over the bowl.
00:50And you're gonna dump the ricotta right into the bowl.
00:54Make sure you get everything out.
00:56And this is going to help drain all of that liquid
01:01out of the ricotta, and it's a very slow process.
01:04This is gonna take about an hour,
01:06or you can drain it up to overnight.
01:07It really depends on how thick you want it to be.
01:10Cannoli dough is very similar to a pie dough.
01:14And so to a bowl, we're going to add our flour,
01:18our sugar, a little bit of cinnamon, a pinch of salt.
01:22We'll cut in or use our fingers to fold in the butter.
01:27Just like you would a pie crust,
01:28I'm breaking up the butter into these little pea-sized
01:31pieces so that it creates a really good flakiness
01:34to the shell.
01:35We're gonna add our scrambled egg in first.
01:38That's our binder, our protein source.
01:41And then I'm gonna add the wine.
01:42And the wine is the acid that is going to create
01:45those flaky layers.
01:47And it's also going to help cut any gluten.
01:50So if I overmix this too much,
01:51we'll have the acid in there that's gonna help
01:53keep the dough nice and tender.
01:54Wine is usually added because there's a lot of flavor in it.
01:57And typically you would use a Marsala wine,
02:00but a lot of people use white wine, and that's fine too.
02:02Since we have a lot of sugar already in this recipe,
02:05the white wine balances out.
02:07It's nice and dry.
02:08So when you're almost there,
02:09you're gonna have this shaggy dough.
02:10It's gonna be very floury,
02:12so you'll use your hand to kind of bunch it together
02:14in the bowl.
02:14Then you're gonna pour it out onto a cutting board,
02:16and I'll continue to form it into a round, flat disc.
02:20I'm gonna wrap it in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge
02:22so that it sets for about an hour.
02:24That will make it a lot easier for rolling and cutting.
02:28Now we get to make the filling, my favorite part.
02:30The ricotta and pastata has drained,
02:32so we'll add that into the bowl.
02:34And that's gonna get mixed in with mascarpone.
02:36I'm gonna add mascarpone to this
02:37because it helps make the mixture really creamy and rich.
02:41Gonna use powdered sugar, a little bit of cinnamon,
02:44orange zest, vanilla, and salt.
02:48Citrus zest, it helps brighten the rich,
02:50creamy flavor of the cannoli cream.
02:53I love using cinnamon.
02:54Cinnamon's a classic flavor in cannoli.
02:56You put it in the shells,
02:57and you put it in the cream usually,
02:59so it balances out the flavor.
03:01If you find that your mixture's a little too thick,
03:03then you can always add more whole milk ricotta unstrained.
03:07So you'll be able to tell when this is done
03:09when the ricotta can hold its shape
03:11at the end of your beaters or your spatula.
03:14It should be really dense and pipeable.
03:17Got my cannoli dough.
03:18Gonna bring it over to my board,
03:20and we're gonna roll it out to an eighth of an inch thick.
03:23After you place down your bench flour,
03:24which helps the sticking,
03:26I create a star shape almost with my rolling pin
03:30so that it helps create these little individual sections
03:33on the dough so that as I'm rolling,
03:35I could turn and roll,
03:37and it's kind of like a guide for myself
03:40as I'm pushing the dough out on the board.
03:43It also helps make it even.
03:45When I worked at the Italian bakery,
03:46the head baker, Frank, taught me how to roll out dough,
03:49and he used to say the dough was walking,
03:52which means that it's just not sticking to the board
03:55and that it's actually moving, like this.
03:57Going to cut out my perfect little circles,
04:02and they're going to be a little big,
04:05which is okay because when they fry,
04:08the dough is gonna constrict a little bit.
04:10I'm using a metal cannoli shell,
04:14and it kind of even looks like a metal cannoli,
04:16which you could buy off of Amazon,
04:18and if you don't have metal, you could use wooden dowels,
04:20but this is really the only way
04:22you're gonna be able to get this shape.
04:23There's really no hack to it.
04:25You just have to do it right.
04:26So I'm gonna wrap the dough around the mold.
04:29I'm gonna take a little bit of my egg white,
04:30and I'm going to just dot the top part of the semicircle,
04:37and I'm gonna fold it over,
04:38and you could do this on the surface too,
04:41which is a little more helpful,
04:42and you're gonna gently press.
04:43You don't wanna create finger marks on it.
04:46It'll seal.
04:47We're gonna get ready to fry the cannoli,
04:48which is the best-smelling part of the entire process.
04:51The oil should be at 350 degrees.
04:53Typically, when you start,
04:55you should have the oil be 10 degrees higher
04:57than the recommended amount
04:58because when you add the food into the oil,
05:01it's gonna drop the temperature dramatically,
05:04and it's gonna get you right to that sweet spot,
05:06your 350 degrees.
05:08I'm gonna gently put the cannoli
05:09into the hot oil with tongs,
05:11and my pot's pretty big,
05:13so I'm gonna do four at a time,
05:14and I'm gonna fry them until they're golden brown,
05:17those little bubbles appear on the outside of the shell,
05:20about four to six minutes.
05:22Once they're cooked through, they look beautiful,
05:24they're golden and crispy,
05:25I'm going to take them out with a slotted spoon
05:27or my tongs.
05:28I'm gonna put them onto a sheet tray with a rack
05:31so that they can cool.
05:32Let these cool completely
05:33before you even touch the metal.
05:35It should be cold or room temperature,
05:38and what you're gonna do
05:39is you're going to gently,
05:41because these are so delicate,
05:42you're gonna gently twist the tube
05:45and pull it out of the shell.
05:47They're sturdy enough to where the shell shouldn't break,
05:50but you also wanna still try to be as gentle as possible.
05:53But that was perfect.
05:55To fill the cannoli, you're gonna use a piping bag,
05:57it's the easiest way to get into the center of the cannoli.
05:59You're gonna take the cannoli in your one hand,
06:01and you're gonna pipe it right in the center
06:04on the one side out,
06:05and then you're gonna turn it
06:07and do the other side the same way.
06:09You're gonna pipe two sides of the cannoli
06:11so that you have more control
06:12over how much filling goes into it.
06:14Then I'm gonna sprinkle it with chocolate chips,
06:16but you could also do some pistachio.
06:18Some regions in Sicily,
06:19you'll see people put candied orange peel.
06:22Whatever you have on hand really works.
06:24Chocolate chips are my favorite.
06:26The iconic cannoli.
06:28It is so important that you pipe the cream in the shell
06:33right before you're gonna eat it.
06:34If you see a pre-filled cannoli, do not eat it.
06:37Okay.
06:39Mm.
06:41That crunch was everything.
06:44So good.
06:46And it's crispy, it's light and airy
06:48kind of at the same time
06:49because of all those little bubbles.
06:52The cream is decadent.
06:54All that mascarpone and that ricotta.
06:56You might not think so much about the cannoli
06:58when you see it at a party on a dessert platter,
07:00but when you make it yourself, it is so special.
07:04It's really nostalgic.
07:06It is one of the best desserts in my opinion.
07:09And what I love even more about it
07:11is that you could dress it up to be an elegant dessert,
07:14but you can also go into a local bakery
07:16or make it at home and grab a cannoli
07:17and take it on the go with you.
07:19This is my favorite way to showcase Italian desserts.
07:22So for more sweet treats just like this one,
07:24stick around here at Delish.com.