Today I want to share with you my family’s favorite New Year Dessert. I usually have many desserts during the Holiday Season. But Cannoli is an absolute must-have on my New Year table.

 

I fell in love with this traditional Italian pastry from the first bite. It is neither too sweet nor too greasy, which is very important for my taste buds.

 

Although the store version is very good, there is always room for improvement. This year I bought the shells and made the filling. I am not ready to commit to deep-frying my own shells yet. The filling is a different matter.

 

I made the basic Cannoli filling using quality ingredients from a regular supermarket. I plan to test different ingredients with this basic filling.

 

Ingredients:

 

Whole milk ricotta cheese – 907 grams

Mascarpone – 1 small jar

Powdered sugar – 1 cup plus 1 heaped teaspoon

Vanilla to taste (optional)

Cinnamon (optional)

 

I like to use Galbani Ricotta cheese because of its texture. To make a Cannoli feeling, you need to press out extra liquid from the ricotta cheese. You can use cheesecloth or a clean 100% cotton cloth as I do. I put ricotta cheese inside the colander covered with the cloth. Then I wrap the cloth around the ricotta cheese and tie it with a string to make a sealed bag. I place the colander into a large bowl. The colander should be able to hang above the bottom of the bowl. Then I put some weight on top of my bag. This contraption goes to the refrigerator overnight. You can see how much liquid I got out of Galbani Ricotta cheese. You can use this liquid to make pancakes or a smoothie.

 

I used the immersion blender to beat all the ingredients together. I made only 5 of them for this post and put the rest of the filling into the refrigerator till the next morning.

I used a small ziplock bag with the pastry tip to fill my Cannoli. This bag serves the purpose very well.

 

I will update this post with more photos and tips when I am done with my customization. This base filling will keep well in the refrigerator for a few days. I also plan on using some of it with my Pizzelle.

 

Stay tuned!

Happy New Year!