08 Jan
Posted as Pastries
Holy Cannoli, these are awesome!! As a good Italian girl, I’ve been enjoying cannoli for a long time, but I had yet to learn how they were actually made, until this holiday season. Sure you could buy the shells and fill them with a homemade filling, but I’m talking honest-to-goodness homemade, from start to finish. Enter my Chief Culinary Consultant’s Nana. I had been hearing about her cannoli since I met my Chief Culinary Consultant, but never had the opportunity to try one until now. Not only did I get to eat them, but I got to watch them be made and enjoyed every minute of it! On New Year’s Eve day, several members of the family got together to help and watch the cannoli being made. I tried to document the process as much as possible so that I could share it with you. My only misstep was not getting a photo of the cannoli sitting on the dessert platter the next day, so I had re-plate with the extras that I took home with me.
For those that are not familiar, cannoli are a traditional Sicilian pastry that is made by rolling out a circle of dough and wrapping it around a metal cylinder or “form” and then deep frying. Once cool, the shells are filled with a sweetened ricotta filling. Sometimes nuts or dried fruit are added to the filling and sometimes the ends are dipped into crushed nuts or chocolate chips, but we went simple and classic – just the shell and filling. Pure and utterly delicious!
I expanded on the recipe when I wrote it out below to provide some additional details, but wanted to share a photo of the original recipe. I always love seeing older recipes as they were typed or written out, with handwritten notes scrawled on them.
The cannoli forms that we used and that you’ll see in the pictures were made by Nana’s husband around 50 years ago in the shop of the aluminum manufacturer that he worked for. These cannoli are TRULY from scratch! Cannoli forms are available for purchase from a variety of outlets, and these Norpro Cannoli Forms
You will see that the recipe for the dough includes wine, and I am told that either red or white will work, but that red will affect the final color of the shells, and my Chief Culinary Consultant said that he liked the shells made with white wine better than those with red. These were made with a mix of Riesling and Pinot Grigio; you could also use Marsala wine.
Recipe Note: You should only fill the cannoli right before you are planning on serving them. You can store the empty shells in an airtight container and the filling in the refrigerator until ready to use. Only fill as many cannoli as you plan on eating!
Cannoli
Makes about 6 dozen shells
For the Shells:
2 lb. cake flour
3½ ounces granulated sugar (about ½ cup)
4 ounces vegetable shortening
4 egg yolks
1¾ – 2 cups wine (enough to make the dough easy to roll and handle)1. Mix all ingredients together and allow to rest at least 4 hours before frying.
2. Tear off a chunk of dough about the size of a walnut and roll into a circle about 1/8-inch thick.
3. Wrap the dough around a cannoli form, overlapping dough and press to seal together.
4. Heat vegetable oil to around 375°F (the best temperature for deep frying) and, a few at a time (or however many fit in your frying vessel without crowding), place the prepared forms into the oil. Fry until light golden brown, about 3-4 minutes.
5. Remove the forms from the fryer and set on paper towels to drain.
6. Allow to cool until able to handle and slide the shell off of the form. Cool completely before filling.
For the Filling:
2 lb. ricotta cheese
2 cups whole milk
2 cups granulated sugar
½ cup cornstarchMix the sugar, milk and cornstarch in a medium saucepan over medium heat until smooth and dissolved. Stir the sugar mixture into the ricotta until combined. Return to saucepan and continue to cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens (a few large bubbles should pop at the surface when it has thickened), about 20 minutes. Cool to room temperature and then refrigerate. Filling should be cold when used to fill the cannoli shells.
Note: The recipe for filling should be doubled in order to fill all of the shells that the original recipe makes.
Don’t miss a recipe! Subscribe to the Brown Eyed Baker RSS feed!
RSS feed for comments on this post.
:: Trackbacks/Pingbacks ::
Pingback by Tweets that mention Cannoli : Brown Eyed Baker -- Topsy.com -
Trackback by uberVU - social comments -
Pingback by Authentic Cannolis – Brown Eyed Baker | Happy Happy Joy Joy -
they turned out great! I’ve never seen the making of cannolis and have always wondered how to make them hollow. Mmmm delicious!
oh wow what a fab post and I want one!!!
I love cannoli, but I’m too scared to fry them myself! Instead I make Cannoli Sandiwch Cookies. Great job!
I adore cannoli and can’t get them readily here in CA like I could in NY and NJ. I am definitely going to try these and am off to order the forms from Amazon.
Oh my goodness! This has to be my favorite posting from you yet!
)
Love cannolis and family recipes! You combined the two!!! Perfecto.
This reminds me a lot about my childhood. A similar version of this was too awesome to forget. I think though, it was not fried but rather baked.
Great post Michelle. These are some good lookin’ cannolis.
Those are just beautiful! I’ll take 2 please
I had no idea cannoli dough had wine in it! I learned something new today – thank you!
I am not sure if every cannoli shell recipe has wine it, but this family recipe sure does!
WOW! These look amazing i can’t wait to try it.
If you don’t want to fry – try rolling warm pizelles from the iron and then filling them once cooled.
I forgot cannoli shells were made with wine! That just makes me want to make some immediately!
Things of beauty! My mother makes cannoli, but with the premade shells. This was a fun post to see!
yum! I could eat the filling with a spoon…forget about making your own shells..diet killer, but soo worth it!
Yumm! I married into an Italian/Brazilian family. I love the photo’s with the hands…is that Nana? They remind me of my Mom’s hands that I miss. I have some of her old recipe’s with her writing on too and love them. Thanks for sharing.
Yumm!!! Believe it or not, I’ve never tried a cannoli before, so I’ll definitely be making these to see if they taste as delicious as they look. I love recipes that have a history to them, and this definitely falls under that category.
Beautiful… Love the blistery shells. Cannoli is my *favorite* dessert. I have made them twice in the past few months, and reading this makes me want to make them again!
I love cannoli. The best one I ever had was in Palermo (where my Mom was born).
Your cannoli look soooo delicious! I definitely will have them using your recipe. Thanks for sharing your family recipe.
Mmm. I’ve yet to attempt the cannoli, even though I’m a little Italian girl too…hrm!
Holy Cannoli! These look delicious!
Mmm, these look delicious. I need a nana! Cannoli are one of my absolute favorite treats and I’m ALWAYS on the lookout for the best one in whatever town I’m in.
what an amazing time!! they look so good!
These look good, I haven’t made them fried yet, I use my pizzella maker for the cookie. The filling I add mini choc chips instead of pistachios because my kids prefer them. I’ll have to try them out.
What could be better? Maybe if they were chocolate coated, but I honestly prefer mine simple and classic!
they look incredibly delicious, one of my favorite desserts
holy cannoli is right – these must taste awesome … wonderful instructions and so glad you posted this
i love this recipe…my sister and i usually make it during weekends…easy yet super delish!!!
What a thing of beauty! I think of the line from The Godfather: Leave the gun, take the cannoli!
Oh my, I had the best cannoli in Washington DC at big train station. This makes it look like I could actually make them.
I’ll have to share with my daughter.
really need to master these before my friend studying in US comes back again. He absolutely loves cannoli and i want to try making it for him when he is back:)
I’m so excited to try this recipe. I have made your pastry cream and my husband and I love it! My sister-in-law’s friend and I are in a bit of a competition with cannoli – I think I’ll be the winner now for sure!!! Love this web-site and will be visiting often!!
After all these cannoli’s I’d seen with the DBers, i thought I couldn’t learn anything new. But these look soo good, and so clean.. not at all warty!