Cannoli filling recipe

Experimenting and made shells out of puffed pastry in the oven. Made tubes out of rolled up aluminum foil, rolled out pastry dough, egg washed edges of dough and wrapped them around the tubes and sealed the edges together. Turned out great! Tomorrow I'll fill them.

I agree with the previous poster, a good quality ricotta is key. Add confectioner's sugar to taste, a drop of vanilla, and for truly authentic cannoli, you'll want to add some finely diced candied citron and/or candied orange peel, along with some mini chocolate chips if desired. This is the classic filling.

However, I've also cut the ricotta with some quark or creme fraiche--this gives a slight tang that cuts through the richness. Another frequent addition of mine is some marsala or cognac--I really like a boozy note in there. Also, if you don't have access to quality candied citron, which can be difficult to find at this time of the year, some orange zest is delightful as well and will give the necessary flavor profile. I'd recommend running the ricotta through the food processor, as it gets rid of the slight grittiness; some will also insist on draining the ricotta overnight before making the filling, which may not be a bad idea depending on the consistency of your cheese.

Happy baking!

Many people also dip the edges of the cannoli in finely chopped pistachio (the pride of Sicily, after all), which is a great addition.

Make sure you buy good ricotta cheese as this is the most important thing. Then just add icing sugar and whatever flavourings you want. You can add dark chocolate flakes for a classic, or what i like is to add some cold espresso and cocoa powder. Its really the shells that are hard to make, the filling just depends on the quality of the ricotta