Italian Homemade Baked Cannoli
Homemade Baked Cannoli, are a delightful adaptation of the popular and much loved Italian pastry. Bringing all the rich flavors and textures of the classic dessert without the need for deep frying. These crispy, tube-shaped shells filled with creamy ricotta make a delightful dessert or snack that captures the spirit of Sicily’s culinary tradition in a slightly lighter and equally delicious form.
If you asked an Italian what their absolute favourite pastry is, without a doubt they would answer Cannoli, from one of their favorite Fresh Strawberry Cannoli to Pastry Baked Cannoli !
My daughter and her father have been asking me for ages to make Cannoli. So the other day I was at the Bakery buying bread and right in front of me was a huge tray of Cannoli. So I thought “ok what the heck, Cannoli it is”! I decided to lighten them up so instead of deep frying I baked them.
Recipe Ingredients
- Flour – all purpose flour
- Sugar – granulated sugar
- Cocoa – unsweetened dutch processed cocoa
- Cinnamon – ground cinnamon
- Egg – large egg
- White wine – good quality white wine or marsala
- Butter – I use salted butter if you use unsalted then add 1/4 teaspoon of salt
- Ricotta – ricotta cheese
- Chocolate Chips – unsweetened mini chocolate chips
- Chocolate – good quality dark chocolate, I use one with 50% cocoa
- Nuts – finely chopped walnuts, hazenuts or even almonds
What Is Marsala Wine
Marsala wine is a fortified wine that is produced only in Sicily and in particular in the city of Marsala. Marsala is commonly used for cooking and to prepare caramelized sauces and desserts.
How To Make Baked Cannoli – the filling
Place the Ricotta cheese in a sieve over a bowl and refrigerate for 24 hours. It has to drain as long as possible to remove the excess moisture. Remove from the fridge and with a spatula over a clean bowl push the ricotta through the sieve.
Add the sugar a little at a time and taste until desired sweetness. Fold in the chocolate chips. Place the filling in a pastry bag with a large tip and fill the baked cannoli, make sure to fill them just before serving. Dust with powdered sugar if desired.
Making the pastry
In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa and cinnamon, make a well in the middle and add the butter, egg and wine mixing with a fork. Bring it together to form a dough. Wrap the dough in plastic and chill.
Lightly grease and flour the cannoli tubes. Roll the dough out very thin and cut out rounds with a round cookie cutter, wrap the pastry so that the ends overlap and seal by brushing with a little egg white or watter. Bake until the pastry is golden. Let cool completely before filling and or dipping with chocolate and nuts.
What If You Don’t Have Cannoli Tubes?
If you don’t have the Cannoli Tubes you can make your own with rolled up pieces of foil, just be sure to lightly grease and flour before wrapping the dough.
A pasta machine makes the work of rolling out the dough a lot easier! Or if you prefer you can make cannoli tarts.
How To Fry Cannoli Shells
I baked these shells but if you prefer the traditional fried Cannoli, then fill a medium sized pot with 1/3 vegetable oil and heat to 350F / 180C degrees. Carefully place 1 or 2 shells at a time in the oil. They should take about 60 seconds to cook, they will be covered in bubbles and blisters when done. Be sure not to let the oil go over 350F / 180C.
Remove to a paper towel lined plate, let cool before filling. The baked shells will keep for 3-4 days in an airtight container.
Different Fillings For Cannoli Shells
You could fill them with two different types of strawberry fillings, a thick Mascarpone and Cream with small pieces of strawberries and another Mascarpone and Cream filling with pureed strawberries, and to thicken it I added a little gelatine.
Or you could fill them with a creamy Nutella and ricotta filling or even with a simple Italian Pastry cream.
Where Did Cannoli Originate?
Cannoli originated from the South of Italy, in Sicily. Typically they are made in a tube shape, from small to extra large and deep fried. The tubes are then filled with a sweetened Ricotta filling, sometimes filled with cut up candied fruit.
Can The Cannoli Be Made A Head Of Time?
The Cannoli shells can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3-4 days unfilled.
Can The Cannoli Shells Be Frozen?
Cannoli shells can be frozen, be sure to place in an airtight container or freezer bag. I don’t recommend freezing the Mascarpone filling because Mascarpone does not freeze well, it will separate. The shells will last 10-12 months in the freezer.
Other Typical Italian Sweets
- Sporcamuss Italian Filled Cream Pastries
- Jam filled Crostata Italian Pie
- Italian Lemon Crostata
- Easy Yogurt Cake
- Easy Italian Pear Cake
Baked cannoli offer a delicious twist on the classic Italian dessert, allowing you to enjoy the the flavors and textures with a healthier approach. Enjoy!
Italian Homemade Baked Cannoli
Ingredients
PASTRY
- 1⅓ cups all purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- ½ tablespoon unsweetened dutch processed cocoa
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 large egg (room temperature)
- 2 tablespoons dry white wine or Marsala (room temperature)
- 1 – 2 tablespoons butter softened
CHOCOLATE COATING
- 4.4 ounces dark chocolate (good quality) (melted)
- ¼-½ cup chopped nuts
RICOTTA FILLING
- 3 cups ricotta cheese
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup mini dark chocolate chips
Instructions
RICOTTA FILLING
- cheese cloth or in a sieve over a clean bowl and refrigerate for 24 hours. It has to drain as long as possible to remove excess moisture.
- Remove the ricotta from the fridge and with a spatula over a clean bowl push the ricotta through the sieve. This will make it nice and creamy, add the sugar a little at a time and taste until desired sweetness (I used ½ cup of sugar you may want more or less). Fold in the chocolate chips.
FOR THE PASTRY
- In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa and cinnamon, make a well in the middle and add the butter (start with 1 tablespoon if too dry add the remaining tablespoon), egg and wine mixing with a fork. Bring it together to form a dough. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
- Pre-heat oven to 350°F/180C, lightly grease and flour 15 cannoli tubes or make your own tubes with rolled up pieces of foil.
- Roll dough out very thin and cut with a round cookie cutter (medium size), wrap the pastry so that the edges overlap and seal by brushing with a little egg white (beat slightly) or water.
- Bake for approximately 15 minutes or until pastry is golden. Let cool completely before coating or dipping with chocolate and nuts, let the chocolate firm up before filling with the ricotta cream.
- Place the filling in a pastry bag with a large tip and fill the cannoli, make sure to fill just before serving. Dust with powdered sugar if desired before serving. Enjoy!
CHOCOLATE COATING
- Break chocolate into pieces and melt (either microwave or place chocolate in a small bowl and place over a small pot of boiling water make sure water does not touch bowl with chocolate).Let cool a little then dip each end of the cannoli in the chocolate then dip in the chopped nuts. Set aside to harden before filling.
Notes
Nutrition
Updated from November 30, 2016
I want to make the Italian Pear Cake 🎂 it looks yummy
Hi Maria, thanks let me know how it goes.
Hello! I think the “1 tablespoons” of butter in the ingredients list is a typo (judging by the fact that “tablespoons” in in plural and my dough came out really dry when I used only one tbsp). Noticed you said you used 1.5 tablespoons in the comments.
fwiw, I used closer to 2.5 tbsp to get my dough to a workable consistency (although it may be a bit much, I’ll find out once my shells finish baking!). Also found I couldn’t get the dough to come together well w/ a fork (just ended up w/ shreds of dough. Ended up mixing it w/ my hands, which was way easier).
Draining (and straining) the ricotta was definitely worth the effort! It came out really fluffy and creamy. 🙂
Thanks for sharing this recipe!
Hi Ashley, thanks I adjusted it to show 1-2 tablespoons. Glad you like it and it turned out in the end. Have a great Sunday.
Made them with sweetened goat cheese (I have a dairy goat) and they were SOOOOOOO good!
Hi Jennifer, thanks so much, your dairy goat brings back memories when my mother-in-law had a dairy goat, nothing like fresh cheese. Have a great weekend.
I’m saving this post because I definitely need to come back to it. I can’t afford a repeat of this year!
My grandmother was native Sicilian and made cannoli and what she called Scilian wedding cake
Her filling is medium thick, enough to use in a layered cake:
3# ricotta (drained 30-60 min)
1/2 C granuilated suger
8 oz honey (I think this gives it the “correct” consistency. It’s fine for the cake or cannoli
3/4 C chopped candied melon candy (or candied cherries)
2 chopped Hershey’s dark chocolate bars
1 TBS ground cinnamon
For the cake she used pound cake from a package mix, baked and cooled and sliced horizontally into 3 layers
Drizzle Triple Sec onto each tier and place 1/4 to 1/2 inch layer of ricotta filling between each tier
Ice only the top layer with deep chocolate frosting
Would you recommend powdered sugar I’ve often made cannolli filling before never used granulated sugar though.
Hi Roseann, yes that would would work too 🙂
These look delicious. Putting on my “to do” baking list.
Hi Ann, thanks so much, I hope you enjoy it.
Did you ever use cannoli filling in a cake? I have a request for the cannoli filling covered with fondant. I feel it will be to soft. Please let me know. Thank you
Hi Karen, I think you are right and it will be too soft, this filling does come quite thick but I really don’t think it would be thick enough. Hope that helps.
Try mixing in 8 oz. of mascarpone into the ricotta cheese mixture, I’ not even a close Italian, but this works, Add a drop of cinnamon oil too. You don’t need to drain the ricotta.
Hi Judd, thanks I will have to try that out. I do whip mascarpone and cream together and it makes a delicious thick filling. thanks
i made this recipe and it didn’t turn out as expected, i feel i made errors on my own part. what consistency should the dough be? it seemed sticky to me, so i added more flour. and when i baked them, they were still soft and not brown. do they harden more while left out? i ended up baking for an extra 10 minutes and that may have been a bad call. the shells turned out very firm and didn’t break easily when bit into. i think i may have to roll out the dough thinner, as well.
i come from an italian-american family and i wish to learn how to cook all sorts of italian foods, but i am still a novice. thank for you any assistance.
Hi Aly I actually remade this recipe a couple of days ago with new photos, and a couple of updates, so give me a couple of days and I will be reposting it. And yes the dough has to be rolled very thin. 🙂
What do you recommend to be substituted for the wine in this recipe?
Hi Holly if you are looking for something non alcoholic how about white grape juice? I have never tried it but it should work. Let me know how it goes. Have a good weekend.
Hi how long do these last? Do the shells freeze well?
Hi Tee, you really should eat these as soon as possible because once they are filled after a day or two the shells can go soggy. You can freeze the baked unfilled shells, they keep frozen for up to two months. Hope that helps.
Oh yes! I will freeze them without the filling then. Thank you so much!!! Can’t wait to try them!
Your welcome 🙂 .
did you really use only one and one half tablespoons of butter???ive made baked shells with Asour cream based dough but I am anxious to try yours. It just seems like it needs a bit ore fat than that. Please LMK
Hi Karen, yes it is only 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter. Hope you enjoy them, let me know. Have a great week.
Advice from another website described supermarket brands of ricotta as unsuitable (nasty) for making really tasty, creamy filling. If that is the case, what brand of rocotta is truly smooth & creamy or what can be added/done to the ricotta to make a more tasty filling?
Hi Marti, I don’t know if you have Santa Lucia there but I like that brand. Hope that helps.
I make my own ricotta because I can never find what we like. Nice and thick.
You have truly inspired me here. I suddenly feel the strength and confidence to actually try to make homemade cannolis. Mostly because these look so stinking delicious and I don’t know where I could buy any that would measure up. Here goes nothing!
Hi Karly, haha so glad I inspired you. And yes they are pretty delicious. Let me know what you thought of them. Have a great week.