Homemade Cannoli Recipe

Make this authentic Homemade Cannoli Recipe with crispy fried shells and a creamy, sweet ricotta filling. Easy step-by-step recipe with tips for perfect results every time. It's a classic Italian dessert that looks as good as it tastes and will impress everyone who tries it!

I'll be honest: cannoli-making intimidated me for years. The fried shells, the ricotta filling, the special tubes you need. It felt like a recipe you should just leave to an Italian bakery. Then, when we took a trip to Rome a few years ago, I grabbed cannoli by the Trevi Fountain and decided it would be fun to finally try making the classic treat!

So that's what this recipe is built around. After some troubleshooting, I discovered how to make shells that come out genuinely crispy and bubbly, and filling that is thick, sweet, and creamy. I'll walk you through all of the steps for making perfect cannoli!

Looking for more fun Italian desserts to make? Try my Lemon Italian Ricotta Cookies, Stracciatella Gelato, and Chocolate Tiramisu.

🛒 Key Ingredients

• Whole-milk ricotta: This is the heart of the filling, so don't reach for the part-skim kind. Drain it well before mixing so your filling turns out thick and creamy instead of watery. I explain how to do this in the recipe instructions.
• Marsala cooking wine: This is the traditional secret to authentic cannoli shells. It adds subtle depth and helps create those signature crispy edges when fried.
• Powdered sugar: Sweetens the filling without the grittiness you'd get from granulated sugar. It dissolves smoothly into the ricotta and keeps the texture extra silky. It's also used as a garnish to add just a sweet touch to the cannoli shells.
• Mini chocolate chips: The classic garnish for that signature look and texture.

See the recipe card below for full information on ingredients and quantities.

🥣 How to Make This Homemade Cannoli Recipe

Shells

1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, granulated sugar, and salt until evenly combined. Add the butter and mix with an electric mixer on low until the mixture looks crumbly and no large clumps of butter remain; it should resemble coarse sand. Pour in the wine and the egg, then mix until the dough comes together into a shaggy ball.
2. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl, cover it, and let it rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. This step is really important. It relaxes the dough so it rolls out thin without springing back or tearing.
3. While the dough rests, add a few inches of vegetable oil to a large, heavy pot and heat over medium. Use a thermometer and bring the oil to 345-355°F. Keeping it at this temperature is the key to crisp, blistered shells, too cool and they turn greasy, too hot and they brown before they bubble.
4. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out very thin, about 1/16 inch (you should almost be able to see your hand through it). Thin dough is what gives you that signature crunch. Use a 4-inch round cookie cutter to cut out circles, gathering and re-rolling the scraps as you go.
5. Lightly grease your cannoli forms. Wrap a dough circle around each form, then brush a little egg white where the two edges overlap and press firmly to seal. The egg white acts as glue, so the shells don't unwrap in the hot oil.
6. Carefully lower each shell (still on its form) into the hot oil using metal tongs. Fry until deep golden brown, about 1-2 minutes. Work in small batches, so you don't crowd the pot or drop the oil temperature.
7. Lift the shells out with metal tongs and set them on a paper towel-lined plate. Once they're cool enough to handle, use a paper towel to grip the hot form and gently slide the shell off. The forms will still be very hot, so be careful here.
8. Let the shells cool all the way before filling. Filling them while warm will soften them, and you'll lose that delicious crunch.

Filling

9. (Start this the night before.) Line a fine-mesh strainer with cheesecloth and scoop in the ricotta. Set the strainer over a bowl, fold the cheesecloth over the top, and weigh it down with something heavy like a can. Refrigerate for 12 hours to draw out the excess liquid. Don't skip this step, well-drained ricotta is the difference between getting a thick, creamy filling and a runny mess.
10. In a bowl, stir together the drained ricotta, powdered sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla until smooth and creamy. Spoon the filling into a pastry bag (or a zip-top bag with one corner snipped off).

Assembly

11. Pipe the filling into one end of a shell until it reaches the center, then fill from the other end so it's evenly stuffed end to end. Fill the shells just before serving to keep them crisp.
12. Dip each open end into mini chocolate chips and dust the finished cannoli with a little powdered sugar.

💭 FAQs