Holy Cannoli

I was a huge fan of The Sopranos when it was on and the show, although long-since fitted with cement boots, has caused me to harbour a longing to sample the compulsory baked item for Mob gatherings; the Cannoli.

A Cannoli, for those not in the know, is a Sicilian pastry in a tube shape and is traditionally filled with a vanilla, cinnamon and pistachio nut flavoured ricotta cream. 


These days the pastry is formed in a metal Cannoli mould, which I see are now available at Lakeland, deep-fried or baked and then filled with the cream and dusted with icing sugar.


I decided, having already spent a small fortune with Lakeland this month, that I was going to go down the traditional route and use Cannoli Sticks, which the lovely Mr Right found time to make for me (having spent the entire morning repairing a fence in gale force wind and lashing rain) out of a broomstick (new I hasten to add) cut into approx 15cm lengths with the rough end sanded off.

Mr Right making the Cannoli Sticks

Here are the finished Cannoli Sticks

Finished sticks

I found a recipe for the baked shells on the internet and got to work.

The dough is quite elastic in consistency but easy to work with and I cut out my 7.5cm squares and wrapped them around the sticks

Wrapped and ready for the oven

and popped them into a super hot oven for 7 minutes.  Here's what they looked like when they emerged

Shells cooling

Then I decided to make a cinnamon, vanilla and chocolate chip pastry custard to fill

Finished Cannolis

The cannolis were yummy, although I couldn't eat more than one at a sitting (believe me I tried!) and surprisingly easy to make and you can freeze the shells for filling at a later date, just pop them in a hot oven for a couple of minutes to crisp up.  I think it would be quite nice to have some smaller, thinner cannoli sticks made and do some bite-sized ones for parties.