Most recipes call for the use of alcohol in the shells’ dough but I don’t use it in my recipe. The shells came out crispy and bubbly as they should be.
These Cannoli pastries are delightful and easy to make.
You can use few of the filling powdered sugar to make a cream Chantilly but it’s the same thing for me as everything will be mixed at the end.
🇮🇹 Homemade Italian Cannoli
Ingredients
For Cannoli shells
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 2 tsp granulated sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
- Water (about 5 tbsp, depends on your flour)
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- Vegetable or canola oil for frying
For the filling
- 1 1/2 cup Ricotta cheese
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 1 tsp lemon juice
Egg wash
- 1 egg
- 1/2 tsp water
Garnish
- Mini chocolate chips
- 1 tbsp powdered sugar
Instructions
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Put Ricotta in a cheesecloth in a strainer and let it drain in a bowl, preferably overnight in the fridge.
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Whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks form.
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Mix Ricotta cheese, powdered sugar, lemon zest and juice. Mix well until smooth.
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Fold in the whipped cream. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
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Prepare the cannoli shells’ dough.
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In a bowl, put flour, salt, cinnamon, sugar and butter. Mix to combine.
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Add water 1 tablespoon at the time and mix with a spoon or preferably with hand.
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Once the dough gets together, put it on a working board and knead it for about 5 minutes or less until smooth. The dough has to be stiff but workable.
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Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let rest at room temperature for about 20 minutes.
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Roll out the dough into thin sheets. Use a pasta machine to obtain the thinnest sheets.
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Use a round cookie cutter to cut out the dough into circles.
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Place the cannoli tube in the middle of the disc of dough.
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Brush one side of the disc with egg wash ( beaten egg mixed with water), then roll the tube to seal the dough.
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Deep fry the cannoli shells with the tubes until golden.
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Drain, then use a paper towel to hold the cannoli tube as it is hot and gently slide the shell out of the tube.
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Fill out the cannoli shells in both sides with the cream, using a pastry bag and dip the edges in mini chocolate chips.
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Dust the Cannoli with powdered sugar.
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Enjoy.
Recipe Notes
- You can mix some of the mini chocolate chips to the filling.
- Cannoli shells’ dough doesn’t contain alcohol in my recipe. The shells came out bubbly and crispy as they should be.