“Leave the gun, take the cannoli.”
There’s a reason this is still one of the most famous lines from any movie, even 40 years later, and it’s because cannolis are really fantastic, and most people prefer them over guns.
Count this Food Snob as one of them.
We were tipped off a few weeks ago about a new cannoli shop on Loudon Road, right next to Red Arrow Diner. While we usually follow up on tips like that the same day (and when there’s food involved, usually within the hour), we had big maple and pizza issues to deal with, so we didn’t get the chance to check out The Cannoli Stop @ The Candy Shop until this past week, but it was well worth the wait.
The place opened Feb. 10 and specializes in handmade cannolis as well as gourmet, retro and/or rare candies. Basically, if you have a sweet tooth, you should consider this place your Mecca.
We stopped by last week to poke around for candy to fill Easter baskets (see page 14), but as we glanced into the cannoli case, which is front and center in the store, we couldn’t resist and had to try not just one but a pair of these things.
The Cannoli Stop sort of functions like a mom-and-pop ice cream shop in that customers can try little samples of all the cannoli flavors before buying. This is how we got into this whole delicious mess in the first place.
We asked for tastes of pistachio – one of our favorite ice cream flavors – and Nutella – one of our favorite chocolate-hazelnut spreads – and we immediately knew we had to buy some. Even though we were slightly unpleasantly surprised at the $4.99 price tag per cannoli, when the company is picking up the tab we spare no expense.
There’s no dining area at the store, so we took these home to enjoy.
First up was the pistachio one. Immediately we were struck by how crunchy the shell was. This Food Snob was expecting a softer outside, but the texture of this cannoli shell was like that of a waffle ice cream cone. This was an extremely welcome surprise, as the crunch of the shell provided a perfect counter to the soft, mushy filling.
And the filling was absolutely delectable. It was thicker than the cream in a cream puff but not quite as dense as cheesecake. It was formidable without being a burden. The powdered sugar added some nice pop, too. And the pistachio flavor was really on point, more pronounced than most pistachio ice cream.
For the Nutella one, it was much of the same story – great crunch of the shell, nice texture inside. The flavor, however, seemed a bit different from Nutella straight out of the jar (of course we know what Nutella straight out of the jar tastes like). This had more of a standard chocolate taste to us, but who would ever consider such a thing a negative?
We were marveling at how good these things were when we looked down and noticed they were gone – these cannolis are definitely sneaky. One second you’re savoring your second bite, next thing you know it’s gone and you’ll be going back for more, which we recommend you do.
The Cannoli Stop @ The Candy Shop is located at 118 Loudon Road. They offer 10 flavors of cannolis, with some staples and some constantly changing options. Hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. For more information, call 224-9704 or search for the business on Facebook.
