Homemade Cannoli Will Beat Out Your Favorite Bakery

Delish

With a rich creamy ricotta filling and a crisp exterior, these homemade cannolis are the perfect treat-yourself dessert.

Transcript

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.

Category

Transcript

Recommended