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Author:
Franco Salzillo
“Leave the gun, take the cannoli,” how to forget the famous line from The Godfather featuring the creamy and crunchy Sicilian dessert?
The crackly deep-fried cannoli shells are a treat by themselves; now, when filled with creamy ricotta with chocolate chips and flavored with freeze-dried espresso, you’ve got yourself a traditional and homey dessert that also feels super high end.
Besides, making cannoli from scratch is immensely satisfying; there’s nothing like it! In fact, these cannoli end up so pretty you don’t even want to dig in. But you will, and you should — they’re also delicious!
If you get your hands on store-bought cannoli shells, by all means, use them. After all, most shells in the market are of pretty good quality.
If you can’t find them, you can make yours with the recipe below. You’ll need some cannoli forms to give these crackly tubes their shape, and you’ll also need the famous Sicilian Marsala wine. Other than that, I’m pretty sure you already have the rest — sugar, flour, eggs, salt, butter and cooking oil.
To make the filling, you only need high-quality ricotta, powdered sugar, chocolate chips, vanilla extract and freeze-dried coffee, AKA instant espresso.
For the shells:
For the filling:
In a stand mixer, combine the flour, sugar, salt and butter until crumbly.
Add in the egg and the Marsala and incorporate.
Flour a surface and knead the dough until smooth and elastic. Wrap in in film and refrigerate for 45 minutes.
Roll out the chilled dough and form circles of around 6 inches in diameter. You should get around 8. Roll the circles around the cannoli forms and brush them with the egg white.
In a frying pan, heat the oil and fry the cannoli shells for 3-4 minutes or until golden. Place over a paper towel to remove the excess oil. Let the shells cool.
In a mixing bowl, combine the ricotta with the sugar, vanilla, espresso powder and chocolate bits.
Pour the mixture into a piping bag and fill the cannoli through both ends.
Dust with confectioners’ sugar.
