These DIY authentic wood cannoli rollers are the quickest and easiest DIY on this blog…
When my mother in law asked me to cut some dowels into 5″-6″ pieces, I quickly obliged when I found out she was about to make cannoli.
Mom devised this DIY because years ago in Chicago she had a downstairs neighbor, Josie Siragusa, that cut her broom handle into pieces to make cannoli. A memory she’ll never forget and will be passed down for generations. We’ve heard so many fun stories about the Siragusa’s. Someone should write a book. 😉
 She bought two or three 1″ diameter wood dowels from Home Depot, I cut them into 5″ or 6″ lengths, and mom sanded them down and seasoned them with oil.
When the cannoli rollers are not in use, I display them on a shelf in my kitchen because I love the texture and warmth they bring, and they’re a fun conversation starter. Â Â While the kids had a day off of school we made cannoli using this delicious recipe from Food Network by Alex Guarnaschelli. Â We followed the recipe to the T. The dough calls for dry white wine, which has such a lovely smell when the cannoli are frying. Â mmmm.
1. We rolled the dough to about 1/8″ thick.
2.We used a glass to cut out small circles.Then rolled the circles even thinner. We found it was easier to roll the small circle super thin rather than roll out the whole ball of dough super thin.
3.Roll the dough circle around the wooden cannolo roller.
4.Wet the edge of the dough with water to seal the dough to itself.
Just small bit of water on the edge of the dough is all you need to seal it, or it’ll open up in the oil and you’ll have mini taco shells.
5.Fry the cannoli while they’re wrapped around the wooden dowel 2 or 3 cannoli at a time. Make sure to turn them over half way through.
6.Use a plastic gallon size zip-loc bag with the corner cut off, or a pastry bag, to fill the cannoli shells with the scrumptious ricotta mixture.
A few tips we learned along the way…
- Use a chop saw(miter saw) to cut the dowels and you’ll be finished in minutes.
- make sure to season(rub them down) the dowels with oil a few times before using them. Â The first few times the oil will soak right into the wood. Â They’ll get better with each use.
- make sure to roll your dough thin, or it won’t cook in the center.
- When you put the roller in the hot oil keep it level or the dough will slide off the wood roller…been there, done that.
- don’t fill the shells with ricotta mixture until you’re ready to serve or they’ll get soggy…also drain your ricotta overnight in a sieve to get out excess liquid.
- experiment and have fun.
Jayna says
May 12, 2020 at 10:16 pmThis looks great. Thank you for sharing. What do you consider as a high quality cooking oil to season the forms with?
Honey says
May 9, 2020 at 7:37 pmFantastic. This is just lovely. Since not all woods woods would be suitable for this task which do you recommend?
mimzylombardo@gmail.com says
May 9, 2020 at 9:33 pmI used plain ole pine. It’s a good idea to season them with a good quality cooking oil. and also put them in hot grease to season them before using them for canoli.