Holy cannoli!
Big cannolis “the dimensions of a teacup poodle’’ have been promoting like hotcakes at Brooklyn’s famed Circo’s Pastry Store.
The huge 4- to 5-pound confections flew off the cabinets this vacation season thanks partly to social media — the place celebs equivalent to Alec Baldwin and TLC’s “Cake Boss’’ Buddy Valastro have sung the praises of the 80-year-old Bushwick bakery.
“I wished to make one thing for the household,” proprietor Antonino “Nino” Pierdipino, 78, informed The Put up on Tuesday, referring to his colossal cannolis.
He stated that whereas there are copycats in New Jersey and past, he was the primary to carry the “large” cannoli to New York Metropolis within the Nineteen Seventies, when he took over the bakery from its authentic proprietor, Sebastino Circo.
The gargantuan goodie has since drawn followers from former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, late ex-US President Ronald Regan and actor Ray Romano.
Merchandise from the candy store — whose mixers embody some army variations courting again to World Battle I — are actually additionally a success with the more and more hipster neighborhood’s Gen Z prospects, stated Pierdipino’s baker son, Anthony.
“They wish to be taught what the custom was,” Anthony stated of the youthful crowd. “It has a whole lot of soul behind it.”
The Knickerbocker Avenue bakery additionally sells sugary delicacies equivalent to rainbow cookies, fig cookies and lobster tails.
However its mega-cannolis — just lately described as the dimensions of a small canine by the meals web site Eater — are all the time the hit this time of 12 months, promoting for $100 and solely made by particular order.
“You make a present once you carry a family-sized cannoli,” stated Anthony, 41.
He stated about 40 orders have been accomplished over Christmas week in 2025 and that the shop nonetheless fulfills “year-round” requests averaging about six orders every week.
The mega-cannoli takes about 5 minutes to assemble after 30 particular person cannolis are produced from scratch, positioned inside its large shell and crammed to resemble one large cannoli.
The ultimate touches embody “blessing” the gargantuan deal with with cherries, chocolate and powdered sugar.
The large shell is made via the identical generations-old strategies and recipes as conventional cannolis, Nino defined — with the dough rolled via a century-old dough curler and baked in a Forties-era oven on baking sheets that predate Nino’s first day on the job within the Nineteen Sixties.
A number of dough mixers got here straight from a World Battle I Navy ship, Anthony famous.
The Sicily-born proprietor started working on the Bushwick bakery in 1966 “the primary day he got here off the boat,” his son stated. He bought the shop within the Nineteen Seventies when its authentic proprietor determined to retire.
Sebastino Circo opened the bakery in 1945, when the neighborhood was crammed with immigrants from Sicily, Anthony stated.
He stated he hopes his younger sons, 10 and eight, will ultimately be capable of take the reins of Circo’s Pastry Store.
Within the meantime, he’s recruited them to sometimes assist in the kitchen over the vacation season.
“I used to be 11 years outdated once I began coming to the store to assist out Pop, and I noticed the love that he has [for it], it unfold all through the entire household for this store,” Anthony recalled.
“It’s all about that nice identify that he constructed, and I wish to protect that.”
