Introduction: Homemade Cannoli Shells
I love Italian food's flavor an cooking methods, the techniques you use are very simple but produce a very complex taste. In this instructable I will show you how to make cannoli shells from scratch.
Step 1: The Ingredients and Materials
To make the cannoli shells you will need the following:
2. Add in the wine 1 oz at a time, until you are able to mix it with your hands.
3. Form into a ball and let sit uncovered for 30 minutes.
While the dough is resting we will form the cannoli tubes out of foil.
- 2 cups of all purpose flour
- 1 tbsp of dark drown sugar
- 1/8 tsp of salt
- 3 tbsp of softened butter
- 2 egg yolks
- 1/4 tsp of nutmeg
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 3 oz. of sweet Marsala wine
2. Add in the wine 1 oz at a time, until you are able to mix it with your hands.
3. Form into a ball and let sit uncovered for 30 minutes.
While the dough is resting we will form the cannoli tubes out of foil.
Step 2: Making Cannoli Tubes
For the structure of the cannoli tubes we will use aluminum foil. I used foil that was 12 inches wide and folded it in half to make it thicker. The dowel I used was 1 1/4 inch in diameter, I let the foil overlap on the dowel about 3 times to strengthen it as well. Doing some simple math I know I need the length of the foil to be 12 inches long [3(1.25 x 3.14) ≈ 12 inches]. For this dowel we will need a sheet that is 12 inches x 12 inches
- Fold the foil in half with the dull side out.
- Roll it tightly around the dowel.
- Slid off and make a few more.
Step 3: Forming the Cannoli
- After the dough has sat for 30 minutes lightly flour a surface big enough to roll the dough out on.
- When you are done rolling it out the thickness should be just thinner then the thickness of a quarter.
- Make sure the diameter of the cannoli disk is about 5 to 6 inches.
- Drape it over the foil covered dowel, lightly wet one end with water and overlap the ends and press it flat so they are joined together.
- Repeat until the forms are all used. You can use each foil form a few times before it become useless.
Step 4: Frying the Cannoli
- Once formed Deep fry them at 360°F until they are golden brown.
- They will roll over during frying so try to rotate them so they fry evenly.
- Once they are done frying pluck them from the oil and let them drain and cool on a paper towel.
- After about 3 minutes you can remove the foil form.
- Let the form cool for an additional 2 minutes then wrap another dough disk around the foil tube and fry it as well.
- Once they are cooled you should have about a dozen cannoli shells with this recipe.
Step 5: Ideas for Filling
Now that you have the shells made you will need to fill them.
You can try my Cinnabon cannoli recipe here if you want: https://www.instructables.com/id/Cinnabon-Cannoli/
Or if you want a more traditional recipe you can just use some ricotta cheese slightly sweetened with some powered sugar.
Either way you choose, enjoy!
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