My big frustration has been finding the shells. Grocery stores used to stock Ferrara's shells, so it was easy to just buy them, mix up the filling, put it in a piping bag and you'd have fresh cannoli. As the grocery stores started selling cannoli in their bakeries, they stopped carrying the shells.

Apparently all that's needed is to make some dough, cut it into a 5-inch circle (the round object in the picture) roll it around one of the steel tubes with a little egg wash as glue to hold it together, then plunk it in the deep fryer for a minute or two. So that's what I will try....

Thanks for the filling recipe!