Cannoli Cookie Sandwiches
My husband’s favorite dessert is cannolis. Not cookies, not cake — cannolis specifically. Which means the moment I started making the filling for these, he was stationed in the kitchen doorway doing his best “just passing through” impression while clearly waiting for a taste test opportunity.
The kids got involved too. When they saw two cookies going together with cream in the middle, my daughter immediately named them “cookie sandwiches” — which, honestly, is a better name than anything I came up with — and then proceeded to eat the edge chocolate chips off three of them before I could stop her.
These disappeared in record time. That’s the review.
Cannoli cookie sandwiches are exactly what they sound like: chewy chocolate chip cookies filled with a real cannoli cream — mascarpone and ricotta whipped together with powdered sugar, vanilla, and lemon and orange zest — then rolled in mini chocolate chips around the edges. The filling is the Italian pastry shop version, not a simplified cream cheese swap. It takes a little more effort and it’s worth it. Total time is about 1 hour 35 minutes, most of which is the filling chilling in the fridge while you bake the cookies.
Ingredients
For the cookies, you’ll need butter, white and brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour, baking soda, salt, and mini chocolate chips.
For the cannoli filling, grab heavy cream, mascarpone cheese, ricotta cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla, lemon zest, orange zest, and more mini chocolate chips for decoration.
Why Each Ingredient is Key
Butter gives the cookies their rich flavor and soft texture, while the sugars add sweetness and help achieve a golden brown finish. Eggs bind everything together, and vanilla brings that warm, cozy aroma. Flour, baking soda, and salt are the foundation, creating the structure and ensuring the cookies rise just right. The mini chocolate chips are a nod to the traditional cannoli shell, adding bursts of sweetness in every bite.
For the filling, heavy cream creates that fluffy texture, while mascarpone and ricotta combine for the signature creamy tang of a cannoli. Powdered sugar sweetens it up without making it too heavy, and the vanilla and citrus zest add bright, fragrant notes that balance out the richness. Mini chocolate chips around the edges? That’s just extra magic.
How to Make Cannoli Cookie Sandwiches
Start with draining the ricotta — at least 1 hour before you plan to start, spoon the full 16 oz into a fine mesh strainer over a bowl. Refrigerate. Come back to it when you’re ready.
Make the filling. In a large bowl, beat 1 cup heavy cream with a hand mixer until stiff peaks form — when you lift the beaters, the cream should hold a firm point. In a separate smaller bowl, beat 8 oz mascarpone until completely smooth. Fold the mascarpone into the whipped cream gently using a rubber spatula. Set aside.
In a third large bowl, combine the drained ricotta, 1 cup powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon vanilla, lemon zest from one full lemon, and orange zest from one full orange. Beat until smooth. Fold the whipped cream mixture into the ricotta base — fold gently, large strokes, until no streaks remain. Cover with plastic wrap directly on the surface of the filling and refrigerate 1 hour minimum.
Make the cookie dough while the filling chills. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment. In a large bowl, cream ¾ cup softened butter with ¼ cup white sugar and 1 cup brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add 2 eggs and 1 teaspoon vanilla, mix until smooth. Add 2¼ cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, and ½ teaspoon salt all at once — mix until thick dough forms. Fold in 1 cup mini chocolate chips.
Use a 2-tablespoon cookie scoop to portion 8 balls on each baking sheet, spaced 2 inches apart. You’ll get 16 cookies total — 2 per sandwich, 8 sandwiches. Bake 13–15 minutes until the edges are golden brown. Centers will look slightly underdone — that’s correct, they’ll set as they cool. Cool completely on the pan before filling. Warm cookies + cannoli filling = melted, sliding mess.
Assemble. Transfer filling to a piping bag or large zip-lock with a corner snipped. Pipe a generous mound (about 2–3 tablespoons) onto the flat side of one cookie. Press a second cookie on top, flat side down, pressing gently until filling reaches the edges. Roll the exposed filling edge through a shallow bowl of mini chocolate chips, coating the perimeter. Repeat with remaining sandwiches. Serve within 1–2 hours of assembly.
Why Both Cheeses — and Why the Citrus
Most cannoli filling recipes use ricotta alone or cream cheese as a shortcut. This recipe uses both mascarpone and ricotta, and the combination is what gives authentic cannoli flavor and the right texture.
Ricotta alone is slightly grainy and can be watery — full-fat, well-drained ricotta gives the filling its body and that distinctly Italian flavor. Mascarpone is silky and rich but very heavy on its own — it adds creaminess and depth without the graininess. Together, the two cheeses hit the texture that actual cannoli filling should have: smooth, slightly dense, creamy without being cloying.
The citrus zest — lemon and orange both — is not optional. It’s what keeps the filling from tasting like sweetened cream. The brightness of the zest cuts through the dairy richness and gives the filling the slightly floral, complex flavor that makes cannoli taste like cannoli rather than frosting. Don’t skip it and don’t reduce it.
FAQs
Yes. This is the most important step in the recipe. Store-bought ricotta contains significant moisture that will make the filling runny if not drained first. Spoon ricotta into a fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth over a bowl and refrigerate at least 1 hour, preferably overnight. The liquid that drains off can be discarded.
Yes, but the flavor will be different — cream cheese is tangier and denser, mascarpone is milder and silkier. Full-fat block cream cheese (not whipped, not spread) is the best substitute. Soften completely before blending. The filling will be slightly less authentic-cannoli in flavor but still very good.
Yes — use full-fat whole milk ricotta. Drain it thoroughly before using. Part-skim ricotta has more moisture and a slightly less rich flavor; it works but requires more thorough draining. Avoid fat-free ricotta — it won’t give you the right texture or flavor.
Cookies: 1 day ahead, stored airtight at room temperature. Filling: 1 day ahead, refrigerated in the piping bag or an airtight container. Assembled sandwiches: no more than 2 hours before serving — the filling softens the cookies quickly. For parties, bake and make filling the day before; assemble same-day.
Two most common reasons: ricotta wasn’t drained (the most common cause), or the heavy cream wasn’t whipped to true stiff peaks before folding in the other ingredients. If your filling is already made and too loose, return it to the fridge for 30 minutes — it may firm up slightly. If it’s still too loose, you can fold in additional mascarpone cheese 1 oz at a time until it reaches a pipeable consistency.
Yes — the filling is very adaptable. Add 1–2 tablespoons of mini chocolate chips folded in at the end for chips throughout the filling, not just on the edges. A pinch of cinnamon is traditional in some regional cannoli recipes. A tablespoon of orange liqueur (Grand Marnier) added with the vanilla enhances the citrus notes. Chopped pistachios can be added to or substituted for the chocolate chip edge coating for a different presentation.
Yes — use a 1-tablespoon scoop for smaller sandwiches (yield increases to about 16 sandwiches, bake time reduces to 10–12 minutes). Use a 3-tablespoon scoop for larger bakery-style sandwiches (yield about 6, bake time increases to 15–17 minutes). Adjust filling amount proportionally.
The Most Important Step: Draining the Ricotta
Store-bought ricotta contains significant moisture, and if you skip draining it, your filling will be runny. Runny filling doesn’t pipe cleanly, doesn’t hold between cookies, and will make the cookie bottoms soggy within minutes of assembly.
To drain ricotta: spoon it into a fine mesh strainer set over a bowl, or wrap it in a few layers of cheesecloth. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour — overnight is better. Discard the liquid that drains off. You’ll be surprised how much comes out. Drained ricotta should look dryer and hold its shape when you press a spoon into it.
This is the step most people skip and the reason most homemade cannoli filling ends up too loose. Do this first, before you start anything else.
When to Serve These Cookies
These cookies are a showstopper for holidays, birthdays, or casual weekends when your family demands a little something extra. They’re perfect for potlucks, dessert tables, or even as a midday treat with coffee.
Why the Filling Goes Together in That Order
The recipe builds the filling in a specific sequence — and the order matters for texture. Here’s why:
First, heavy cream gets whipped to stiff peaks on its own. Stiff peaks means the cream holds a firm point when you lift the beaters — it shouldn’t flop or droop. This is your structure.
Then mascarpone gets blended smooth separately and folded into the whipped cream — not the other way around. Mascarpone is dense; adding it to the whipped cream gently preserves the air you just whipped in. If you added whipped cream to a bowl of heavy mascarpone and stirred, you’d deflate it immediately.
Then the ricotta base (with sugar, vanilla, zest) gets made in a third bowl, and the entire whipped cream + mascarpone mixture gets folded into that. Same logic — you’re folding lighter into heavier at each stage, not the reverse. The result is a filling that’s airy and pipeable rather than dense and heavy.
Don’t rush this or combine steps. Three bowls is annoying. The texture is worth it.
Tips for Making This Recipe with Kids
If you’re baking with little ones, let them mix the dry ingredients or fold in the chocolate chips. Piping the filling can also be a fun activity—just expect some (okay, a lot of) giggling and maybe a little mess. Rolling the edges in chocolate chips is another kid-friendly task that lets them feel like mini chefs.
If you make these — especially if you have a husband who considers cannoli filling a personal food group — drop a comment. I want to know if yours made it to assembly or if the taste-testing situation got out of hand. And if your kids renamed them something better than “cookie sandwiches,” I need to know that too.
More cookies worth making: the Funfetti Sandwich Cookies are the same cookie sandwich format if you want something more approachable for a crowd, and the Homemade Milano Cookies are the move when you want thin, elegant, and deeply chocolate.
Here are some more delicious cookie recipes to try!
Cannoli Cookie Sandwiches
Cannoli cookies are the ultimate mashup of chewy chocolate chip cookies and creamy, citrus-kissed cannoli filling. These decadent cookie sandwiches are a fun, easy way to bring an Italian bakery favorite into your home!
Ingredients
- Cookies
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, softened
- ¼ cup white granulated sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Cannoli Filling
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 8 ounces mascarpone cheese
- 16 ounces ricotta cheese
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- Lemon zest of 1 lemon
- Orange zest of 1 orange
- Extra mini chocolate chips for coating the edges of the cookie sandwiches
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, blend the heavy cream with a hand mixer until thick and stiff peaks have formed.
- In a separate mixing bowl, blend the mascarpone cheese until smooth.
- Add the mascarpone cheese to the whipped heavy cream and fold together until combined. Set aside.
- In another large mixing bowl add the ricotta cheese. Blend to make this slightly smoother and break apart larger ricotta cheese chunks.
- Add the powdered sugar and mix again until combined.
- Pour in the vanilla extract and grate all the zest from one whole orange and one whole lemon into the bowl. Blend once more until thoroughly combined.
- Pour the whipped cream mixture into the ricotta mixture and fold everything together until no streaks are left.
- Cover with plastic wrap and let chill for 1 hour.
- While the cannoli filling is chilling, make the cookie dough.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a mixing bowl add the softened butter, white sugar and brown sugar. Cream together.
- Then add the vanilla extract and eggs. Mix again until smooth.
- Add all the dry ingredients at once of flour, baking soda, and salt. Blend until a thick dough is formed.
- Fold in the chocolate chips.
- Use a 2 inch scooper to make round balls of dough and place them on the prepared baking sheet about 2 inches apart from each other, fitting 8 cookies on each pan. Repeat on a second baking sheet to create the other half of the cookie sandwiches.
- Place these cookies in the oven and bake for 13-15 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are becoming golden brown brown.
- Let these cookies cool completely before filling with the cannoli filling.
- Place the cannoli filling into a piping bag and snip the end.
- Fill one side of each cookie with a hefty amount of cannoli filling. Press the other cookie on top allowing the filling to slightly protrude from the edges of the cookie.
- Roll the edges of this cannoli cookie sandwich in mini chocolate chips, coating all of the showing cannoli filling.
- Serve immediately!
Nutrition Information
Yield
10Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 850Total Fat 50gSaturated Fat 30gTrans Fat 1gUnsaturated Fat 17gCholesterol 147mgSodium 461mgCarbohydrates 92gFiber 4gSugar 59gProtein 14g
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Hi! I’m Nellie. I am an entrepreneur, a busy mama of 3 and a wife to my high school sweetheart. I have been sharing content for over 12 years about how to cook easy recipes, workout tips and free printables that make life a little bit easier. I have been featured in places like Yahoo, Buzzfeed, What To Expect, Mediavine, Niche Pursuits, HuffPost, BabyCenter, Mom 2.0, Mommy Nearest, Parade, Care.com, and more!
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