There are many great quotes referring to the delicious cannoli. The two below are my favourites.
“Leave the gun, take the cannoli”… Clemenza from The Godfather.
“I’ve never had cannoli before. But if they are supposed to taste this good, I should have had them much sooner.” – My husband’s exact words when he tried the cannoli I made for this month’s Daring Bakers Challenge…
The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.
Leave the gun... take the cannoli - Clemenza from The Godfather
Lisa has also been kind enough to put in PDF the Cannoli recipe. The only change I made was to increase the amount of marsala wine (I added another 1/4 cup) and an egg until the dough was wet enough to knead. Unfortunately my first batch was too dry so I had to start over – but it was worth it!
As for the filling, I used a combination of candied oranges and dark chocolate.
Daring Bakers Challenge: Cannoli
Grazie Lisa for a great challenge! Your detailed instructions made a world of difference – it gave me so much confidence to tackle the challenge.
Trissalicious 
My husband loves cannoli – he would be forever in my thrall if I were to make these for him. The question is: could I actually do it? Or would I turn him off cannolis forever? 😎 It’s worth a try!
Love the cannoli presentation! Looks a lot like what I would expect store bought ones to look like, container and all 🙂
Chocolate and orange is such a classic combination. Bet these were yum!
They look wonderful. And the flavor combination is so mouth wattering.
They look fantastic! Well done 🙂
Mmm… chocolate & orange… drool….
Great cannoli and what a luscious filling. Choc and orange is always such a great combination. Congratulations.
Beautifully blistered cannoli shells. Chocolate and orange is one of my favorite flavor combinations.
Mimi
Looks really good! And i love the orange and dark chocolate combination. always a winner
Trissa, textbook perfect cannoli…your blisters are beautiful (one would think one was crazy for uttering that line without knowing what it referred to..lol). The chocolate chip -orange filling sounds yum, and I’m so glad you and your hubby liked them! Amazing job, as well as photos! So glad you took part in my challenge..you rocked it!
OH, also..I agree..”Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli” is one of the best.lines.ever, and was perfect for this challenge 🙂 Glad you shared that sentiment with me!
you’re cannoli are perfect! I love the blisters and the filling is mouth watering.. no wonder it was love at first bite with your husband 🙂
Your blistery cannoli look amazing! Love that comment by your husband too. By the way, I baked mine at about 220’C until golden and puffy. Not sure exactly how long it took as I didn’t time it. Guessing 5 – 10 mins.
Your shells are perfectly blistered ~ so beautiful!! Great job on these.
Never had cannoli before, but this one looks so yummy! I’m persuaded to leave the gun:)
The Cannoli looks great. I love Lidia. She is like my Italian Mumma. I always watch her show on Lifestyle Food. ehehehe..
Jaffa cannoli? DELICIOUS. Great flavour idea. I love your wonderfully large blistering!
Great idea with the filling! Looks and sounds so delicious!
Chocolate and orange! What a perfect combination! Your cannoli looks absolutely perfect. Job well done!
MMMMMMMMMMM,…Trissa! Your filled canneloni’s look awesomely delicious!
Perfectly lovely cannoli. I think your husband just said it all! 🙂
Oh wow! Trissa your cannoli so crisp and perfect…chocolate & orange…yummm! oh i feel like grabbing one! yes more for us hehe thanks for the comments and dropping.
You did really well on this challenge Trissa!! I’m impressed… I – as usual – ran out of time… I really have got to find more time to cook! It’s becoming ridiculous…! (thankfully I have a workshop tonight…:))
Great job! I am impressed. Orange and chocolate go so well together too.
Love the “leave the gun” line.
Oh my Trissa! Yours are stunning =D. Such fabulous flavours you have!
Your shells look incredible! Beautifully blistered 😀 Fantastic “baking”, well done 🙂
I Trissa, I’m Italian the look of your cannoli is amazing.
Compliments
Agree.. this one is definitely a keeper!! Easy and fun to play with ..
Love the combination of orange and chocolate…
I like how your cannoli shells were so nicely blistered. They do taste really good!
I love the look of the blisters on your Cannoli, it looks exactly the way my favourite italian patisserie’s Cannoli looks. Yum to the filling, mmm dark chocolate
I’ve never had sweet cannoli before…
Love your cannoli displayed in the little loaf cup – so cute! I stuck with tradition on the filling as well, and included nuts with my zest and chocolate. I also found the dough to be a tad dry – I kept randomly adding extra Marsala until I thought the dough was an alcoholic, then swapped to water instead.
Yuuuummmm, chocolate and orange is one of my favourite combinations 🙂 Your cannoli look so great, they blistered up beautifully! I totally echo your husbands sentiments about cannoli completely!
hehehe – I love your husband’s quote – so true! This was a great challenge indeed.
Mmmmm cannoli!! And I remember that quote not from The Godfather but from You’ve Got Mail. Yeah I’m chick flick chick! 🙂
Lovely!!! I am making this today (haha) and I have to post tomorrow.. hope they come out as beautiful as yours! :))…
I love this dessert. As always great photos. You’re so talented. Please include this on the menu when I visit you. 😀
Leave the gun indeed! Beautiful cannoli Trissa, love the flavours of orange and dark choc together, no wonder your hubby was impressed.
Leave the gun… take the cannoli LO L OL L OL I actually laughed for a min while reading your posting and your cannoli shells looks so warty (blistered) and delicious for some reason I had no problem with the dough but you where clever enough to go by feel which is what every good baker goes by when doing doughs (great work on that and having the confidence to trust you own instincts). And that picture is to die for and the jaffa filling (orange and dark chocolate) is one of my fav’s. Superb effort on this challenge and Cheers from Audax in Australia.