Cannolis. There, I said it. Carlo’s Bake Shop on Eighth Avenue in Manhattan has the best cannoli I have ever eaten.
My wife Wendi, the founder of this blog, and I traveled to New York City, staying at the Hyatt Centric off Times Square, this past summer. We traveled with Wendi’s sister and her husband, Randi and Shaun Vahl. We were walking all over the place (we literally averaged 10 miles a day while in the city), and on one of the nights we walked past Carlo’s Bake Shop.
I discovered Buddy Valastro, the fourth-generation owner of Carlo’s Bake Shop, was of Cake Boss fame. I never watched Cake Boss, but Wendi and I are suckers for visiting restaurants and whatnot that have appeared on the Food Network or other television stations and cable channels.
When we stopped in, there were so many good selections. It was hard to decide what to get. There were all kinds of cupcakes and cookies, half-moons, cake slices, whole cakes, cream puffs, lobster tails, mousse desserts and more. Though tempted to try something else, I settled on a cannoli, as did Randi.
Wendi gravitated toward a chocolate mousse/cake dessert.
And, Shaun grabbed a lobster tail, a complicated dessert to make that is shaped like a lobster tail, but it is constructed of thin leaves of pastry dough and is filled with a French cream, a custard with whipped cream folded in.
When I grew up in Revere, Mass., we used to have an Italian bakery right up the street. We used to get wonderful loaves of bread, scali, sliced or sometimes unsliced, especially if the bread was warm and just came out of the oven. We would rip the bread apart and slather butter on it. But, one of my favorite desserts there was a cannoli. It features a baked tube of pastry filled with sweetened ricotta cheese. And, they were wonderful. The bakery always had “plain” cannolis. There were never any chocolate chips in the cheese filling or anything else. But, Carlo’s cannolis were different: The shells were dipped in chocolate.
I wasn’t sure what to expect. With cannolis, you really don’t want to buy them pre-made. You want them to fill the shell with the cheese filling when you place your order. The sweetened, baked, tubular shells absorb moisture from the cheese and become soft and soggy — not something you want out of a cannoli. At Carlo’s, the shells were dipped in chocolate, and the cannolis were pre-made.
I tell you what, when I took the first bite of that cannoli, I recognized immediately it was the best one I had ever eaten. The ricotta filling was perfect with just the right amount of sweetness. The chocolate coating on the shell did not detract from the flavor at all. Carlo’s cannoli shells are a bit sturdier than any I have ever eaten, and they were crisp — just the way you want them.
We all enjoyed our time at Carlo’s Bake Shop in Manhattan, and if I ever get back to the city, then you can bet your bottom dollar I will be back at Carlo’s getting a cannoli … or two … or three. If you are in NYC, then you have to go. You will be glad you did.
