Home Page

History of Cannoli Cores...

Louis J. Fanara
    1909-1982

Sometime in the Mid 1940's our beloved father, Louis J. Fanara, decided that cooking the shells for the Cannoli's could be accomplished easier.  Back in those days people were cutting broomstick handles into approximately 6 inch lengths.  The dough was then wrapped around the short length of broomstick and dropped into the hot grease.  The result was that while frying in the hot grease, the Cannoli shell became very saturated with the grease because it could only cook from the outside in.  Once cooked, the Cannoli shell was removed from the grease and placed on something that could absorb the excess grease and allowed to cool off.  Once cooled, the next step was to remove the shell from the broomstick.  Because the wood had a grain, the dough would actually adhere to the wood and make it difficult to be removed.  Many of the shells broke apart from the attempt to remove them from the broomstick.

Dad figured a way to use a very light, non rusting, metal to use as the form for the shells.  He also designed the container so that you could use the lid as the cutter for cutting the circles of dough that you place on the metal cores.  He included an Authentic Italian Family Recipe too !!! 

Here are the advantages of the metal cores over the wooden ones. 

They are lighter, thus easier to handle.

When in the hot grease, they cook from the inside and the outside making cooking faster. This means that they will not be as greasy as they would be with the wooden broomsticks. They cool down quicker too.  Just remove them from the grease and place on a paper towel for a few minutes while they cool down and they will be ready to remove from the core.

They are easier to remove the shell from the core.... Because they are flexible, you can just squeeze the core, which makes it smaller in diameter, and slide the shell off.

The next step is to fill them with your favorite filling and enjoy !!!