Cannoli Filling

One day I’ll make the cannoli shells too, but that was just one bridge too far for me today! For the filling, I was inspired by Baker By Nature’s easy 5-ingredient recipe, but ended up using something a little different. At one point, I read someone added cream – whipped – to the recipe, and I so had to go there. Because I can be so very literal, when the recipes say “blend”, I’m never 100% sure if they mean with a spoon, with a spatula or can I break out the stand mixer and go to town? That googling led me to Food Folks and Fun’s recipe, where, yay, they do it all in the Kitchenaid so I’m good to go.

I made the ricotta myself, and drained it overnight in my Lekué cheese maker, where there is maybe 1/4 c of whey, so it was already pretty well drained. I bought the cannoli shells at H-E-B, about $5 for 6 pretty large shells, so imagine me smacking my forehead when Food Folks and Fun pointed out that World Market carries the mini shells, 20 for $3! Dang! That will definitely be my next purchase. These big ol’ shells are a little intimidating. And the H-E-B cashier and bagger both remarked they had never seen these before and asked how to use them, so it makes me wonder how old they are!!

Update 2021: World Market doesn’t have the mini-cannoli shells right now but I found them at Phoenicia for under $5 for 12, so I bought 4 boxes just to be safe. Amazon carries them – lots of low-star comments say they’re all broken; lots of high star comments say they’re perfect. I decided to get them locally just in case. Apparently they can also be purchased at restaurant supply stores, of which we have a few in Houston.

See below for some other cannoli filling ideas I want to try.

Print Recipe

Cannoli Cream Filling

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Ingredients

• 1/2 c heavy cream (not in the BNN version)
• ricotta cheese - Food Folks and Fun says a 15-oz container drained, and Baker by Nature says 2 cups, but not if that is pre- or post-draining. I have a little over 2 cups I think.
• 1/2-1 c powdered sugar - FFF says 1/2, BNN says 1. What to do??
• 1/2 - 1 1/2 t vanilla - no question here, I'll be using more. It's homemade Mexican vanilla.
• 1/4 t cinnamon - this is not in BNN's recipe but I think it will be great.
• 1/3 - 3/4 c mini chocolate chips

Instructions

1

Using the whisk attachment, whip the cream in the mixer, then set aside

2

In the same bowl, mix the ricotta, powdered sugar, vanilla and cinnamon for about 1 min on medium speed

3

Fold in whipped cream and chocolate chips

4

Save some chocolate chips for the ends!

Notes

Note 1: melt some chocolate chips and dip the ends of the shells in them first! Yum!
Note 2: also dip the filled cannoli into chips for decorating too
Note 3: apparently there are a million different wonderful ingredients you can add or garnish with: orange zest, lemon zest, nuts.

If you’re in the mood for a video, here’s one of Alex Guarnaschelli from the Food Network. She doesn’t use a stand mixer though.

I used 1/2 c powdered sugar – I think I would like it better sweeter, but it might also be that my 2+ cups of ricotta needed more sweetener because it was more volume of ricotta than either recipe.

More filling ideas!

I had the notion to create Lemon Cannoli filling and then Lemon Blueberry – a number of recipes popped up, including this one from Jamie Oliver that involves mascarpone and yogurt which sounds good (but no pistachios, yuck) and this easier one from Cherry Knoll Farm that just adds lemon juice and zest and blueberries. I found a couple of others that also used mascarpone and/or lemon curd which sound really good – this one is mascarpone instead of ricotta, from Ricardo Cuisine. This one from Bret’s Table has a lemon curd recipe to mix with ricotta, no mascarpone. This one has fancy shells too from Two Bit Tart.

Oh, and pumpkin cannoli! from Imperial Sugar – must try!