Air Fryer Cannoli

Air fryer cannoli with mini chocolate chips

Tonight’s culinary adventure: air fryer cannoli. SO ridiculously easy to make. It only takes about half an hour of active time from start to finish! However the filling requires at least 12 hours of inactive advance prep time, so please plan accordingly.

Cannoli is a treat that brings me straight to Commercial Street in Boston’s North End. Meaning, it makes me good and homesick. Arguably the best little Italy spot in America, it’s where two rival bakeries create some of the yummiest confections known to man. Had I known I could make cannoli shells in the air fryer, and it was this freakin easy to make, I’d have started making these for myself a LONG time ago and saved myself some heartache.

Another fun fact: cannoli is the plural. Cannolo is the singular. One treat is a cannolo, more that one treat are cannoli. If you say “cannolis”, that’s like saying “geeses”.  Enough color commentary! Read on to learn how easy these things are.

Ricotta is MOIST

I can’t stress this enough: ricotta cheese is moist af. Sorry not sorry if you hate that word, because I want you to associate ricotta with the word moist for the rest of your days. (Article: The Science Behind Why People Hate the Word Moist) Ricotta needs to be drained as much as possible to have a pleasantly non-soggy filling. That means, it is essential to set your cheese to drain well in advance of making the rest of the cannoli. More liquid that you thought was possible will come out by the end. You will be shocked. SHOCKED, I say.

Drain the cheese

To drain the cheese: set a fine mesh strainer over top of a deep bowl. Make sure the bottom of the strainer doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl. Ideally there should be at least 1-2 inches of empty space between the bottom of the strainer and the bottom of the bowl for the liquid to accumulate.

Air fryer cannoli filling prep: A fine mesh strainer set over a medium glass mixing bowl in preparation for draining ricotta cheese.

Line the strainer with cheesecloth. I felt joy in finally using cheesecloth for its namesake purpose, hopefully you do too.

Air fryer cannoli prep: cheesecloth set inside a fine mesh strainer, set on top of a medium glass mixing bowl.

Scoop the ricotta on top of the cheesecloth (resist the urge to dump it in from the container, to avoid dumping out any unnecessary additional liquid out of the container), and pack it down with the bottom of your spoon. Distribute it into the bottom of the strainer and around the sides, to maximize the surface area the liquid will drain from. Cover the top of the cheese with plastic wrap, and press down. Set a small bowl on top of the plastic wrap, and place a large heavy canned food into the bowl, to act as a weight. You really want to get as much as possible of the liquid out. Set that whole shabang in the fridge, and leave to drain for at least 12 hours. If that seems like a long time: it’s not. Leave it in there for up to 24 hours for light, fluffy, not-soggy filling.

Air fryer cannoli prep: here is the ricotta, after draining for 5 hours, still inside the draining contraption.

Air Fryer Cannoli Forms

Cannoli forms are these little metal tubes that you’d typically wrap cannoli shell dough around. Then, you’d drop the dough-wrapped forms into a vat of hot oil to cook. With this recipe, we’re cooking in the air fryer and using premade refrigerated pie crust, so we can get creative with what we use for forms.

I cut down an old 3/4-inch diameter wooden dowel rod I had lying around to 5.5-inch lengths. After lightly sanding and wiping them down, I carefully wrapped them in aluminum foil.

You can also crimp up and sculpt the forms out of just aluminum foil. I wanted a clean, perfectly round hollow for my shells, so I used the dowels. The dimensions don’t seem to be super important, just as long as the circle of crust you cut out can wrap completely around your form with a bit of overlap. But if you’re wanting to be traditional, 3/4-1″ diameter by 5-5.5″ length hits the target.

Wooden dowels wrapped in smooth aluminum foil makes a great diy air fryer cannoli form. Not so good for traditional deep fried cannoli shells.

Wooden dowels wrapped carefully in aluminum foil for air fryer cannoli forms. Wrap and fold carefully around the ends to secure.

Air Fryer Prep

Not a heck of a lot to do, but crucial none the less, clean out your basket to remove any grease/crumbs leftover from cooking savory things. Dry off, and later coat with nonstick cooking spray.

Cut your dough into circles

Turn out your pie crust onto a clean, lightly floured surface. Using a heavy rolling pin, wine bottle, or pint glass, roll out to 1/16″ thickness. Using a 4″ diameter circle cookie cutter, biscuit cutter, or other 4″ circle cutting device (I used a fried egg form), cut your pie crust into circles. The size of the circle is important here, it should wrap comfortably around the shell form with at least 1″ overlap.

Wrap the crust around the form

Whatever you’re using for forms, give them a good spray with nonstick cooking spray. Cannoli shells are usually deep fried in a vat of hot oil, and for that type of cooking method this step would be unnecessary; but for this air fryer recipe, the forms need a little bit of light greasing so that the cooked, crispy pie crust shells don’t stick and crumble into pieces when removed.

Wrap the dough carefully around the greased forms. Where the crust edges overlap, brush a bit of beaten egg white, which acts like glue to adhere the overlapping crusts together. Make sure to not get any of the beaten egg white on the form itself, or else your shells will stick.

Carefully wrap the pie crust circle around the greased shell form. Pictured is a 4″ diameter circle of pie crust wrapping around a 3/4″ diameter shell form.

Coat them shells with sugar and bake

Pour 1/4c of turbinado sugar (or other coarse sugar – but turbinado caramelizes in the best way) into an even layer on a plate. Brush the outside of the shells with some more of the beaten egg white, again making sure to not brush too close to the edge or onto the form, and roll carefully but firmly in the  to coat the shells with the sugar.

Coat air fryer basket with nonstick spray, and preheat your air fryer to 400F. Add a few shells at a time, about an inch apart, cook until they are golden and crispy, and the sugar melted/caramelized in spots – about 5-7 minutes. My 7-qt capacity air fryer basket fit 4 shells at a time. Carefully remove with tongs to a wire rack to cool. Cool for a couple minutes until you can handle them. Grasping the shell in your closed fist, gently twist and wiggle the form to remove. Replace the shells to the wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining shells.

Air fryer cannoli shells cooling on wire rack

Mix the filling

Take your well-drained ricotta out of the fridge. Marvel at how much liquid drained out. Pat yourself on the back for thinking ahead.

Plop that drained ricotta into a clean mixing bowl, stir in powdered sugar, orange zest, vanilla, and salt. Spoon into a piping bac fitted with tip of your choosing. Chill for at least 15 minutes, or until ready to use.

Air fryer cannoli prep: LOOK AT HOW MUCH LIQUID DRAINED! YOU could take a bath in it!

Finish the Air Fryer Cannoli: Pipe the filling

Taking one cooled cannolo shell in one hand and your chilled cannoli filling in the other, pipe them betches. You’ll want to pipe from both ends and make sure some filling makes it to the middle of the shell. Once piped, sprinkle the ends with mini chocolate chips, sprinkles, or coarsely chopped roasted pistachios. Serve/devour immediately.

One air fryer cannolo (cannoli).