Cannoli

Cannoli

Italian · Recipe

Cannoli are iconic Italian pastries featuring crisp, fried shells filled with sweet, creamy ricotta, often mixed with chocolate chips or candied fruit. Finished with a dusting of powdered sugar, they’re a delightful, indulgent treat.

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About this dish

Italian cuisine

Ingredients

  • 150g plain flour
  • large pinch of bicarbonate of soda
  • 1 tbsp castor sugar
  • ½ tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp cocoa powder (optional)
  • 30g butter
  • 1 egg
  • 50ml marsala (or white wine)
  • Sunflower oil for deep frying
  • 50g dark chocolate melted
  • handful of pistachio kernels finely chopped
  • icing sugar for dusting
    • For the filling
  • 250g ricotta drained and beaten till fluffy
  • 100g mascarpone
  • 2 tbsp finely chopped candied peel
  • 2 tbsp icing sugar
    • (you will need cannoli moulds available to buy online)

Description

Instructions

  1. Tip the flour, sugar, bicarb, cinnamon and cocoa powder (if using) into a bowl with a pinch of salt, add the butter and rub into the dry ingredients until there are no lumps.
  2. Mix the egg yolk and the marsala, add this to the dry ingredients and knead into a smooth dough. Wrap and rest in the fridge (can be made ahead and fried the next day)
  3. Fill a deep-fat fryer, wok or a deep saucepan a third of the way up with oil.
  4. Cut the dough into pieces and, working one piece at a time, roll them out as thinly as you can – use a pasta machine if you have one.
  5. Heat the oil and keep an eye on it until it reaches 180 °C. Lay the dough out on a lightly floured surface and cut out circles about 11 cm across.
  6. Wrap each one around a cannoli mould, using some egg white to stick to the top edge down, and they are ready for frying. It's important to take care when cooking with hot oil.
  7. Keep the oil at 180°C and be careful of splashes or the oil overflowing onto the cooker could cause fire, a deep fat fryer is recommended for the best way to control the heat of the oil.
  8. Deep-fry the cannoli (with their moulds) one at a time, making sure they cook all over. They should take about 45-60 seconds. They should be golden brown and cook a little longer if they aren't the dough will bubble and blister.
  9. Carefully take each one out of the oil using tongs and shake the cannoli off the mould very carefully onto kitchen paper. As you fry each one, make sure that the oil stays at 180°C at all times and doesn't get any hotter. These will keep for 2-3 days in an airtight container.
  10. When the cannoli are cold, dip the end of each one into chocolate, then dip some of those into the pistachios. Leave to cool and harden. Beat the ricotta and mascarpone together, then stir in the candied peel and sugar.
  11. Spoon the mixture into a piping bag with a wide star nozzle and pipe it into the cannoli dust with icing sugar, then serve