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Desserts Recipes

Cannoli Cheesecake

Whats better than combining two desserts into one? Not very much... If you love cannoli (which all Italians do) and you love cheesecake, this recipe is a must try! Impress your friends and family with this delicious dessert. It is a guaranteed hit to all who have a taste. Enjoy :)

 

What’s better than combining two desserts into one? Not very much… If you love cannoli (which all Italians do) and you love cheesecake, this recipe is a must try! Impress your friends and family with this delicious dessert. It is a guaranteed hit to all who have a taste. Enjoy 🙂

Ingredients

  • 7 oz pkg cannoli shells
  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 4 cups whole milk ricotta cheese
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup whipping cream
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon orange zest
  • 5 large eggs
  • 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips
  • Confectionery sugar for sprinkling
  • Optional: Almonds

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9-inch springform pan with parchment (or Wilton mini cheesecake pans for deeper cheesecake).
  2. Crush cannoli shells  (food processor works best), add butter and 2 tablespoons sugar and continue to pulse until med-fine crumbs.
  3. Press crumbs firmly onto bottom of the pan. Bake 10 minutes. Let cool.
  4. Beat ricotta cheese, remaining sugar and flour in the bowl of an electric mixer on medium until well blended. Add whipping cream, vanilla, and zest; mix well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing just until blended after each addition. Pour over crust.
  5. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, then sprinkle top with the chocolate chips delicately, pressing chips in lightly. Continue to bake 10 more minutes or until center is almost set. Run a knife around rim of pan to loosen cake.
  6. Cool before removing rim of pan. Refrigerate for 4 hours or more. Before serving sprinkle with confectionery sugar.
  7. Top with whipped cream if desired. Store leftovers in the refrigerator. Serves 10.

82 comments

      1. Hey Brenda , I have made this cheesecake four times, it is awesome! You won’t be disappointed

      1. Ingredients

        7 oz pkg cannoli shells
        3 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
        2 tablespoons sugar
        4 cups whole milk ricotta cheese
        1 1/2 cups sugar
        1/4 cup flour
        1/2 cup whipping cream
        2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
        1 teaspoon orange zest
        5 large eggs
        1/3 cup mini chocolate chips
        Confectionery sugar for sprinkling
        ​Optional: Almonds
        Directions

        Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9 inch springform pan with parchment (or Wilton mini cheesecake pans for deeper cheesecake).
        Crush cannoli shells (food processor works best), add butter and 2 tablespoons sugar and continue to pulse until med-fine crumbs.
        Press crumbs firmly onto bottom of pan. Bake 10 minutes. Let cool.
        Beat ricotta cheese, remaining sugar and flour in bowl of electric mixer on medium until well blended. Add whipping cream, vanilla and zest; mix well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing just until blended after each addition. Pour over crust.
        Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, then sprinkle top with the chocolate chips delicately, pressing chips in lightly. Continue to bake 10 more minutes or until center is almost set. Run knife around rim of pan to loosen cake.
        Cool before removing rim of pan. Refrigerate for 4 hours or more. Before serving sprinkle with confectionery sugar.

        Top with whipped cream if desired. Store leftovers in refrigerator, serves 10.

    1. I googled hardcore Italians recipes. It is there. Then I google how to make cannoli shells as I couldn’t find them in our town.

      1. Denise, I didn’t make my shells, I went to my local grocery store and asked the bakery for plain cannoli shells, and they gave them to me

      2. A good substitute for cannoli shells is waffle cones from the ice cream cones spot! That’s what I will use. The cannoli shells are pretty pricey and the difference in taste, to me, is minimal.

      3. It’s very hard to find canolli shells is there anything else I can use

      4. You can buy ready made cannoli shells at a larger grocery store. Ive made them before, they are a little tricky to make. Easier to buy premade ones.

    2. I was able to copy and paste – but if you look at all the comments, someone posted it so you can copy and paste above.

  1. What is this supposed to look like on the inside? It helps to indrrstanu the consistency.. do you have any photos showing that? I manage a Facebook Food page, and shared this post. One of the users asked this.

    If you have a pic and can update the post? That would be awesome and incredibly helpful!

    Looks amazing though, hence sharing it to the Guelph Culinary And Cookbook Page.

  2. what do you do with the optional Almonds? I thought maybe grind them up with the cannoli shells, and then I thought, well maybe chop them up and press them in with thchope chocolate chips. OR do you want us to chop them up and fold them into the ricotta cheese.

    1. The pasta shell that is stuffed with ricotta and mozzarella cheese is called a cannelloni and served as an entree. A cannoli is a fried pastry shell that is filled with sweeten ricotta cheese ans served as a dessert. I hope this helps.

    2. Cannoli is never stuffed, but rather filled, with ricotta. Are you thinking cannelloni? Those are stuffed.

    1. Hello I made this I used a 7 oz bag of cannoli chips, bought three stuffed cannolis I removed the filling and set it aside ,increased the melted butter to 9 tbs for the crust. It was amazing. I took the cannoli filling and foldeded it into the cool whip and garnished the cheesecake just before serving. I also added 1tbs of cinnamon to the cheesecake and used 1/4 tsp of orange extract in place of the orange zest/ the oranges here were not
      Desiseable for zesting.I hope this helps/I used my 10” pan it was amazing no leftovers
      Diana

      1. Just one more thing I only used 1cup of the cool whip with the filling and put the rest of the cool whip on the side The extra creamy type enjoy!

  3. The recipe on the Fanara Cannoli Cores for the shells is: 1 cup flour, 1 tablespoon shortening, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1/4 cup liquid (1/2 water, half whisky or wine. I use Marsala) Sift flour and sugar, cut in shortening, add liquid. Roll out dough thin. Using the lid of the container, you are supposed to cut the dough, but we have used other round cutters. Wrap each circle of dough around core using a little beaten egg on end to seal and prevent shell from unwrapping. Fry in hot oil in wire basket until light brown. Cool slightly and remove shell by squeezing the core smaller so the shell slides off.
    You can get the cores at http://cannolicores.com

    1. I must say, this was very funny reading the comments. People asking the same questions over an over an over. I love it, no one reads😂This made me laugh and smile. Thank you so much.
      Btw, I grew up on this recipe. My father made this. He’s right off the boat from Italy. They only changed it by putting the chocolate chips on top an the cannoli. So because they added the cannoli they think it’s Italian, it always had ricotta, so maybe that made it Italian first, who knows.
      It’s a cheese cake, it’s delicious, make it how ever you want, make it polish and put something polish people eat on top an in the crust 😂😂😂🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️then you’ll have a polish cheesecake.
      Have a blessed day 🙏🙏🙏

  4. I made this Cannoli Cheesecake for Easter! I followed the instructions to a T.
    IT WAS A FLOP!!! HORRIBLE…..
    1 HOUR & 15 MINUTES made it ,over cooked, dry, and hard. PLUS additional 10 minutes!
    I was so disappointed!

    1. Same here. It came out terrible! I followed the recipe to a tee and it was dry and a little burnt tasting on the sides. What a disappointment!

    1. It’s called cheesecake because it has cheese in it; ricotta is a type of sweet cheese just like cream cheese and mascarpone cheese.

  5. I’ve made this multiple times and receive so many compliments on it when I make it!
    Wonderful recipe. Thank you so much for sharing!

  6. I know this has been asked several times already, but I didn’t see a response. Does the ricotta need to be drained?

  7. This is the first Cheesecake that doesnt have to be cooked in a water bath? Just making sure there wasnt a typo.

  8. You can order your cannoli shells online they are cheaper that way and you will receive broken shells but thats ok because you have to grind them up anyway…

  9. I made it and it looked beautiful but it tasted awful! The crust was too wet and the cheesecake wasn’t as creamy as a regular cheesecake.

  10. I just tried this. Made it to the T YUK! I am super bummed it tasted horrible… nothing like cheesecake nor cannoli or anything of the sort…. I am not sure if this recipe was put on here as a joke, and if not I mean no disrespect.. but I did not like it at all!! It went straight into the garbage…money wasted 😔

  11. Made this recipe for Thanksgiving. Would substitute cannoli shells for graham crackers and no orange zest. Did not taste like a cannoli at all. Also, once refrigerated, very wet on top of cake. Drained ricotta because I know ricotta has a lot of water in it.

  12. Excellent recipe! I omitted the orange zest and I ALWAYS use a water bath when baking cheesecakes! Everyone loved it!

  13. In fact, I’m enjoying a slice right now, and it’s scrumptious! The cannoli shells give it a slight cinnamon kick! The cheesecake is light & not too sweet! And I don’t miss the orange zest at all!

  14. I made this for Christmas. I followed the recipe and it was DEVOURED by my family. I don’t know what the negative reviews are about. I don’t really bake, but this was easy and there was literally nothing left. As I have a price to family members they all got in line for a slice because the person before was raving about how good it was. I’m already planning to make it again this weekend.

  15. Sounds like Italian Cheesecake only the name is changed to Cannoli and the mascarpone cheese is left out. Guess its all GOOD pretty much the same thing. Graham Crackers would work the same as cannoli shells its the inside ingredients that make the taste not the shell.

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