Catherine Schimenti, the restaurant's consulting pastry chef, is the designer of the cannoli. The initial idea came from Nima Garos, one of Gelso & Grand’s owners. "The first cannoli I made for Nima had the usual ricotta and chocolate chip filling, and he was like 'Bring it up a notch!'," Schimenti tells Delish.
Schimenti replaced the ricotta with matcha and then added vanilla cream mixed with Reese’s Pieces to the other side of the cannoli. The matcha side is stuffed with whole Oreos, and the vanilla side features Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.
The shell is made from pizzelle, super-thin Italian waffle cookies. They are wrapped and cooled around rolling pins to get their shape.
Gelso & Grand first introduced the cannoli on Valentine’s Day, and it quickly earned a following. The restaurant makes about 30 per day, and is currently working on new versions of the dessert.
