I’ve been making cannoli for many years now. I started making cannoli by purchasing cheese and shells because you really can purchase good cheese and shells from nearly all the super markets that I used to go to on the east coast. All I had to do was just drain the cheese, flavor the cheese and pipe the cheese into the shells. I topped them with powdered sugar and a secret pinch of anisette sugar. When I moved to Arizona I noticed that the cheese from my local supermarkets were the big brands that were noticeably not as delicious (more processed tasting) with a grainy texture so I started making my own cheese. It’s pretty easy, you basically bring milk and cream to a slow boil and then add fresh lemon juice to curdle it and wah la you have cheese….not just cheese but great tasting cheese instead of forking crappy cheese.

It’s not impossible to find already made cannoli shells in Arizona but I did notice the super markets here don’t sell or make them and you have to go to specialty stores to find them. Cannoli shells already made are also very expensive. I’ve seen them for $1.00-$1.50 each without the filling so if you need 30 of them your spending over $30.-$45.00 just for small shells without filling.

I kept trying recipes to make them and after 5-6 recipes that didn’t work out as well as I wanted I developed my own recipe for cannoli that is posted on this site. Just search cannoli if you care to try my recipe. (a less detailed version is posted at the end of this post)

The next step in making cannoli was to find the best cannoli cores. I found that most were too big. Nobody really wants a giant cannoli. I had to find the right small cannoli cores. I make three flavors vanilla, chocolate and cinnamon  so I make small ones so people can try a few flavors.

Some cannoli cores I tried stayed hot so long you’d have to wait an hour to get the cannoli off the cores if you could get them off because they burnt on sometimes. After years of trying several the one I’m sticking with for the rest of my life are Fanara’s small cannoli cores. Although they aren’t the smallest they are the best because the cannoli shells come off easily off the cores always because they give and the aluminum cools quicker so I can keep the production going.

You just squeeze the end and you can get them off.

Making Cannoli Shells used to be a Forking Drudgery until I Found Fanara Cannoli Cores.

I am not Forking Paid or anything to post this. It’s the Forking Truth!

For about 33 small cannoli (if your like me I didn’t seal a few right or I would have had about 37 small shells)

2 cups flour

2 Tablespoons butter -soft

2 Tablespoon sugar

2 pinch kosher salt

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup wine

1 beaten egg white

Use the yolk for sealing cannoli

need a little extra flour for rolling

and neutral oil to fry with

Finish with 10x sugar and just a pinch of anisette sugar