Greek Inspired Cannoli

If you have ever had a good cannolo then you know how yummy they are with their slightly sweet and creamy interior and crunchy outer shell. Some are embellished with chopped pistachio’s or mini chocolate chips on each end and dusted with powdered sugar on top. There are many versions you can make.

As I was craving, and making, the traditional Italian version of this dessert a little light bulb went off in my head…I thought the way to make it even better is to pair it with one of my favorite Greek desserts…diples! I mean, everything is better with a little honey, walnuts, and cinnamon, right 🙂 ? Plus, I love the texture of the diples shells more than the cannoli ones, so, this version is “Greeked-up”. It’s a cross between Greek diples and Italian cannoli.

For this recipe I dipped the Greek diples shells into the sweet honey and orange flavored syrup and then filled it with my cannoli filling and topped with a drizzled of honey followed by chopped walnuts and cinnamon…and there you have Greek and Italian fusion at it’s finest! For the traditional Greek diples, click here.

For traditional Greek diples shells you typically add mastixa or maraschino liquor, or plain freshly squeezed orange juice in the dough. Since this is Greek/Italian fusion I used Marsala wine since it is typically used in Italian cannoli shells.

You will need:

Diples Shells:

• 1 1/4-1 1/2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder, sifted into the flour
• 4 egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup Marsala wine or orange juice
• Canola/vegetable oil for frying

Cannoli Filling:

• 16 ounces whole milk ricotta, strained
• 4 ounces mascarpone cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar, packed
• 3 tablespoons mini chocolate chips
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Dipping Syrup:

• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (pulp strained)
• a few slices of orange peel
• 1 small cinnamon stick

Topping:

• Honey, for drizzling
• 1 cup walnuts, chopped (more if needed)
• cinnamon

Steps:

For the shells:

1. In a medium to large mixing bowl, combine sifted flour and baking powder together with whisk and remove 1/4 cup of it and set aside, and make a well in the center of the mixing bowl.
2. Beat egg yolks and sugar with fork until well incorporated, about 20 seconds, then slowly add the liquor or orange juice and combine, then pour into well of flour mixture.
3. Start off using a fork to slowly combine the flour mixture into the liquid, then use your hands to fully combine. At this point, if it is too sticky (it should be a little sticky) add the remainder 1/4 cup of flour mixture in, as needed. Whatever flour you don’t need you can use to lightly flour your surface to knead dough. If you don’t have any flour mixture left just use some plain flour, as needed.
4. Place dough onto slightly floured surface and need for 3 to 4 minutes until it is smooth and tight, then let rest, covered with a towel, for 30 minutes.
5. After dough has rested for 30 minutes, re-knead it for a few more minutes then cut off a portion of it and roll out into REAL thin layers, where you can almost see through the sheet. As you are rolling it out, sprinkle some flour on the dough if you see it starts to stick on your pin.
6. Once you have rolled it as thin as you can without tearing the dough, cut into a short rectangle (what is a short rectangle? It is a word I made up…lol. It’s a square that is just a little longer on one side, you don’t want them too long). You can cut them as big or little as you want. It depends how large you want your diples/cannoli to be. I like to get three good bites out of them so I cut mine approximately 3 by 4 inches. Each one doesn’t have to be exact if you don’t care that they all look symmetrical. Fry up any small edges too, you can leave them as is and process the same way as the shells for some light snacking 🙂 .
7. As you cut your pieces lay them in a paper towel lined pan in single layers with a paper towel in between each layer. Once you have cut all your pieces its time to fry them up.
8. Heat a wide pan, that has about 2 1/2 to 3 inch sides, with about 1 1/2 to 2 inches of oil to about 340-350F, adjust temperature as needed to not overbrown them.
9. Having two forks in hand, add a piece of dough into oil (lay it in away from you). When you see it puff up on the bottom side quickly turn it over to the other side with the forks (this process will take 2 seconds). Once you turn it and it puffs up on the other side, use your forks to help gently roll the dough to form a cylinder, be careful not to puncturing the dough (see video below). Continue with rest of the pieces.
10. Place your completed shells (as you make them) on a paper towel lined sheet tray to drain and cool.

For the cannoli filling:

1. Make sure your ricotta is well strained. You can put it in a sieve in the frig overnight or if you don’t have that time you can layer it onto a small sheet pan with about 4 paper towels under it and then cover with 4 more paper towels and press out the liquid. You may need to keep replacing the paper towels until most of the liquid is gone.
2. Mix all the cannoli filling ingredients well and cover with plastic wrap and put into the refrigerator until you are ready to use.
3. When ready to use, give filling a good mix and then add it into a piping bag. Cut the tip of the bag giving it no more then a 1/2 inch opening.

For the dipping syrup:

1. Add all ingredients into a medium sized pot and bring to a boil. Let boil for a couple minutes until you are sure all the sugar has melted.
2. Remove from heat and set aside until ready to dip. Once you are ready, warm it up again and turn off heat.

Assembly:

1. Find the shells that have a wider opening in the shell. This will make it easier to fill with cannoli filling.
2. Take a shell and dip it into the warm syrup, making sure to turn it and get the syrup into the shell. You may have to tilt your pot, with the syrup, to one side a little to get the syrup all in the shell.
3. Place dipped shell onto a platter and continue dipping shells until you have as many as you want.
4. Gently pick up one of the dipped shells, they are delicate and will be a little sticky, and using the piping bag with filling gently squeeze in filling as much as far in as it can go, then turn the shell around and squeeze in filling from the other side. Set it back down on platter and go to the next one.
5. Once you have filled all the dipped shells, drizzle honey on them and then sprinkle a generous amount of chopped walnuts on top and sprinkle with cinnamon. Best if eaten shortly after you fill them, but as long as you have strained the ricotta well, then you can store filled shells in the refrigerator for up to 12 hours for best results, otherwise the shell will get too soggy.
6. If you have left over shells (that didn’t have a good opening in them to fill) then you can use those to make traditional Greek diples, or you can store undipped shells, covered, in a cool place for a week or two and only use them when when you need them.

Kali Orexi!

Video on how to fry diples dough: