Do you make your own cannoli shells?
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Elery has used the pre-made cannoli shells before, but The Princess wanted to impress her Italian great-grandmother and make cannoli. I bought the metal "forms" and we rolled and deep fried for a long time. Filled with a mix of ricotta, powdered sugar and mini chocolate chips, they were used as an Easter Dessert and she was quite proud of herself. They turned out so well we made some more for Easter at my house. Some were overdone, and they weren't all the same size, but they were all eaten anyway, for some odd reason. :-)
Anyway, I thought the whole process of rolling the dough, wrapping it around the forms, deep frying, burning fingers removing the forms while the shells were hot and before they stuck to the forms, it was all a PIA and the end result just wasn't that much better than the commercially available shells, especially when the ricotta filling/powdered sugar/chocolate chips were added. Some were too done, some came unwrapped, the thickness of the dough varied when rolled by hand. Although I also have a recipe for chocolate cannoli shells, I don't know that I'll bother.
Has anyone else made their own cannoli shells? Were they wonderful? So much better that they were worth all that work and mess? I admit to having no Italian genetics at all, so I have no old family Italian recipes and I found a zillion recipes for the shells all over the internet. Some had wine, some did not, we made them without because we don't drink and so I never have wine, but that was my only reason for choosing the recipe I did.
I'll follow up with another picture, because I can only attach one when I'm starting a thread, another Houzz oddness...
Annie
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annie1992Original Author