Mini Sicilian Cannoli Shells With Ricotta Filling

This authentic Sicilian cannoli recipe makes mini Cannoli desserts, small fried Italian pastry dough shaped as small tubes filled with creamy ricotta. While the classic cannoli are long and brittle, these mini crunchy desserts can be eaten in two-bites mess-free. Their crispy shells are thicker but not as brittle, perfect for serving at a party. Mini-size cannoli are much easier to make at home from scratch, both shells and ricotta filling.

Jump to:

• When mini cannoli are better than large ones
• Ingredients
• Instruction
• Making the ricotta filling
• How to serve the Cannoli
• Cannoli fillings
• Best ricotta for desserts
• How to prevent shells from going soggy
• Tools you need to make Cannoli
• Cannoli variations: sizes and flavors
• FAQ
• 📋 Mini Cannoli Shells With Ricotta Filling

Sicilian Cannoli desserts are round crunchy fried dough shells shaped as tubes filled with ricotta cream, sugar, and vanilla.

They can be coated with chocolate, nuts, or icing powdered sugar, and the cream can be mixed with chocolate chips, orange peel or candied fruit.
Cannoli is plural, while cannolo is singular.

In Sicily, you find them in any sweet bakery, Pasticceria, throughout the year.

Selling the best Cannoli is a pride for a Sicilian Pasticceria; the shells have to be crunchy, and the filling creamy and made with good quality sheep's ricotta.

If a bakery serves mushy Cannoli, it is a bad sign. They don't know how to make them.

When we make Cannoli at home, we prefer to make the mini Cannoli as they are easier to make and serve. The shells are more resistant and will not break as easily as the large ones.

I have found many recipes to make cannoli shells, and I tried several, but this recipe remains my favorite due to its simplicity and natural flavor. The shell dough is made with flour, lard, sugar eggs, and white wine, giving them a mild and delicate flavor.

Some recipes add cinnamon, cocoa, or Marsala wine, but I like a plain shell without too many aromas, as I like ricotta to be the dominant flavor.

Filling them at the last minute, the shells don't get soggy. Natural, simple, and fresh, to let the taste of the excellent ricotta prevails.

Other fried Italian desserts popular during Carnival are Italian fried bow-tie cookies, struffoli, Italian donuts Graffe.

When mini cannoli are better than large ones

There are two different sizes of Cannoli:

• Regular: 4.3 in - 11 cm long
• Mini: 2.5 in - 6.5 cm long

The classic Sicilian Cannoli you find at the bakeries are the regular ones, which are fine if that is all you eat.

However, if you serve them after a lavish dinner, a whole Cannolo is a significant portion for just one person.

Large-size Cannoli are not practical to cut in two as the crunchy shell is very brittle and breaks into small pieces when cut.

That is why at home, we prefer to make mini Cannoli which are easier to serve and handle.

Their sizes are a more suitable portion for an after-dinner dessert. Guests can always go for a second one if they wish!

The shells are more resistant, so these mini shells are much easier to handle than large ones.

Once the shells are fried and you need to remove them from their cannoli molds, the large cannoli are more challenging than the small ones.

With this recipe, you can make either mini or regular cannoli, depending on the size of the mold you buy.

Ingredients

For the mini pastry shells

• Flour: regular pastry flour or all-purpose flour,
• Lard: it is essential to use lard for this recipe. If you cannot find it you can use butter
• Castor sugar
• Salt
• White wine vinegar
• Dry white wine
• Fresh egg

For the filling

• Fresh ricotta cheese: You can use cow milk ricotta; however, in Sicily, we use sheep's ricotta for desserts. Good quality ricotta is a crucial element of this recipe
• Vanilla essence
• Sugar
• Orange blossom water or orange zest
• Dark chocolate chip or chocolate cocoa (optional)
• Candied fruits or orange peels (optional)

Instruction

Making the dough

The ingredients for the cannoli dough are simply flour, sugar, white wine, white vinegar, salt, and lard. You will find the exact measurement in the recipe card below.

1. Mix all the ingredients in a food processor or blender until you have a smooth dough
2. Wrap the dough into a plastic wrap and let it rest for 10 minutes
3. Cut the dough into 20 equal parts
4. Make 20 balls

Three easy ways to make the rounds for the shells

To make the rounds for the shells, I used three different methods:

1. The classic way is using a rolling pin and cutting the round with a cookie cutter
2. I also used the pasta machine. This method makes a nice thin layer, so the shells come out very thin. Cut the round with a cookie cutter and keep rolling the remains in the pasta rolls. As the thickness will be much thinner, you will have more than 20 shells, and you may need to double the dose of ricotta cream from this recipe.
3. I decided to buy a dough press and never looked back to the other two methods. So much easier. You can see how I make them in the video below with step-by-step instructions. With this dough press, you can also make homemade wraps and tortillas. An excellent timesaver!

Using the dough press

1. Open the press and lay a sheet of parchment paper over the disk
2. Dust with plenty of flour
3. Place a ball of dough in the center, make sure it is well-floured
4. Cover with another sheet of parchment paper
5. Close the top disk
6. Press
7. Open the press and remove the round from the parchment paper
8. The circles will be 2.5 in - 6.5 cm in diameter

Wrapping the shells around the tube

1. Coat all the tubes in vegetable oil, the same one you use for frying
2. Place the little tube in the middle of the circle (2.5 in - 6.5 cm of diameter)
3. Fold one side
4. Prepare the egg wash by whipping an egg yolk
5. Brush with the eggwash the edge of the dough over the tube
6. Fold the other side and seal the two ends

Frying and removing the tube

1. Once the first ten shells are ready, prepare the fryer
2. Place the shells inside the fryer filled with hot oil
3. Fry until they turn golden brown
4. Drain the excess oil
5. Place them on paper towels to absorb the rest of the oil
6. Holding the tubes with kitchen paper, remove the tubes from the shells. The tube will be very hot
7. Make the second batch of shells

Storing the shells

If you missed it earlier in the article, the Cannoli must be filled just before you serve them; otherwise, the shell will become soggy.

Once the shells are ready and at room temperature, they will be stored in an airtight container for a few days until you are ready to fill them with the ricotta cream.

If you wish, dip the shells in chocolate and let them solidify to form a coat inside and outside the shell.

Making the ricotta filling

1. Before you make the ricotta cream, make sure the ricotta is well-drained from the water
2. Mix with a blender the ricotta, the sugar, and the flavoring (vanilla, orange blossom water, or zest from an orange or lemon)
3. Best if you place the filling into a large bowl and let it rest in the fridge for a few hours

Hint: since the cannoli needs to be filled just before serving, you can prepare both the cream and the shells the day before

How to serve the Cannoli

To finish the cannoli just before serving them:

1. Place the ricotta cream into a piping pastry bag
2. Push the cream at the front of the pipe, so there are no air pockets
3. Pipe the cream inside the shells from each side
4. You can decorate each side of the cannoli with chocolate chips or grated toasted pistachios
5. Dust them with icing sugar

Cannoli fillings

The Cannoli filling is made with ricotta, an ingredient often used in desserts, especially in the South of Italy.

The ricotta is mixed with sugar and flavored with vanilla and some form of citrus flavor, either orange or lemon zest, or orange blossom water.

Unfortunately, they often add candied orange peels or squash, which I do not enjoy. Especially the processed ones!

That is why I instead make Cannoli at home, so I can choose what to add to the filling and how to decorate them.

While I prefer plain ricotta cream decorated with toasted pistachios, I add chocolate chips for my sons.

Pistachios are prevalent in many Sicilian desserts as some of the best pistachios grow in the fertile soil of the Etna Vulcano, called Bronte.

Best ricotta for desserts

Ricotta is a cheese made by re-cooking (ri-cotta in Italian) the whey serum left over after the milk has been curdled to make cheese.

Therefore ricotta is a cheese with low-fat content. Usually made from cow's milk, it can also be made from sheep or goat's milk.

In the South of Italy, sheep's milk ricotta is often used to make desserts in substitution of butter or cream.

Delicious ricotta desserts are Cannoli Siciliani, but also Sfogliatella Napoletana, and the traditional Easter Pie Pastiera Napoletana  

Cow milk ricotta is the most common ricotta you find in supermarkets; it is lighter and perfect for making desserts as it has a milder flavor.

However, the classic Sicilian desserts are made with sheep's milk ricotta, which is not as easy to find outside Italy.

Goat's ricotta is much stronger in flavor and has a higher fat content. It is not a good choice for desserts.

How to prevent shells from going soggy

The Cannoli should be filled at the last minute, just before serving them, so the shell does not have time to absorb the humidity from the filling.

Mushy Cannoli means they have been sitting on the counter for too long.

If a Cannolo is nice and crunchy, you know it has been freshly made.

Some bakeries cover the inside of the cannoli shells with chocolate to create a protective layer that will prevent the shells from getting soggy.

This is an option, but I prefer the authentic plain Cannoli without chocolate coating.

Tools you need to make Cannoli

The cannoli shells are wrapped around a tube and deep-fried, then the ricotta filling is piped inside the shell.

To make them, you need specific tools, and here is the list:

• You can either make the dough by hand or use an electric mixer. You can use the mixer also to make the ricotta cream.
• To shape the rounds for the shells, you can either use a regular rolling pin, a pasta maker roll, a cookie-cutter of 2.5 in - 6.5 cm in diameter, or a dough press as I do in the video below.
• Cannoli tube molds 2.5 in - 6.5 cm or 4.3 in - 11 cm: I like those as they are easy to remove once the cannoli shells are done. They are non-stick and have a flexible round shape, so they shrink or expand with the fluctuation of the temperature. You can buy the bigger size if you want to make larger cannoli. You can also use them to make different types of pastries.
• Pastry brush to seal the shells with egg wash
• Deep fryer or a regular pan for frying the shells
• Piping bag to fill in the shells with the ricotta cream

Cannoli variations: sizes and flavors

This is the recipe for the authentic Cannoli, but you can find many more variations.

Cannoli can be large, covered with chocolate, filled with chocolate, pistachio, or hazelnut cream, flavored with candied squash, fruits, or orange peels.

Try out other variations, let your imagination go and see which one you like best.

This simple one is my favorite!

FAQ

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