Cannoli Dip

Grace & I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother’s Day! Grace hosted her annual Mother’s Day brunch for our family. I’m sure she’ll have plenty to post about in the coming days.

For me, this is the first in a series of short little posts about pins I tried months ago but never shared –mostly because I didn't take any pictures or because they were complete failures (and I was too annoyed at the time to rehash them by typing up a post). This post is in the former category.

A few months ago, I hosted “book club” (we stopped the charade of actually picking book a long time ago). One of the items I made was Cannoli Dip from grouprecipe.com (we all know how much I love cannolis). This is one of the easiest, most delicious pins I've ever attempted.

Unfortunately, I was preparing the dip in a rush and only took one or two blurry pictures with my cell phone.

I basically followed the directions exactly -except I omitted the pistachios. Unlike PSY, I am not a fan.

I served the dip with broken pieces of ice cream sugar cones. 

The Verdict: This dip was delicious – very light. This is a great alternative if you want something different and lighter then cake batter dip. I honestly think this is my favorite dip that I've ever made. Mental Note- I need to make this again!

Things to Note/Consider: I wouldn’t change anything about this recipe. To switch it up, you may want to consider other items to serve the dip with – fresh fruit, vanilla wafers, or graham crackers.

Cannoli Dip

adapted from GroupRecipes.com

¼ cup semi-sweet mini chocolate morsels, plus some more for garnish

1-15 ounce container of ricotta cheese

¼ teaspoon vanilla

¼ cup powdered sugar

1-8 ounce container Cool Whip

• In a bowl, add sugar, ricotta cheese, vanilla and chocolate.
• Stir until well blended
• Fold in Cool Whip
• Sprinkle with additional chocolate chips
• Chill for 30 minutes before serving

Pumpkin Filled Cannolis

It’s September which means for me, it’s time to break out the pumpkin recipes!

I was fortunate enough to start my pumpkin bingeing a little early this year. At the end of August, I traveled to Australia to visit our younger sister. To my pleasant surprise, almost every menu there had something with pumpkin in it! I tired all sorts of pumpkin things- pumpkin & feta pizza, chicken & pumpkin risotto, pumpkin & sweet potato white wine pumpkin sauce over pasta. All of which were delicious! I guess the Aussies love pumpkin as much as Grace and I do.  

Here’s a picture from the trip:

Sydney Harbor Bridge- Me & Kelsey

Now that the reality of summer being over has set in, I figured this past weekend was the perfect time to try a new pumpkin recipe from Pinterest. Enter the Pumpkin Filled Cannoli from Laurenslatest.

Lauren's Latest

Lauren filled her cannoli cream into sugar cones (so creative!). I decided to make the pie cups that I used for the mini cannoli cups. I didn’t take any new pictures while making the shells. If you’d like to see, check out this older post.

Start by whipping the cream.

Move the whipped cream to a separate bowl. Then stir the pumpkin, ricotta cheese, nutmeg, cinnamon, sugar, & vanilla together.

Then whip for 1 minute.

Fold in the whipped cream- here is the step I winged. I don’t really know what fold means in the cooking sense. I just plopped the whipped cream in and used a spatula to move the pumpkin mixture over the cream. I continued until it was completely incorporated.

I spooned the cream into a plastic bag, snipped the corner and piped the cream into the cups.

The Verdict: These were delicious! They were very light and the taste of pumpkin was subtle.  This was definitely my best cannoli cream to date. What's even better is that they only took 15 minutes to make.

Things to Note/Consider: Nothing!

Pumpkin Filled Cannolis

adapted from Lauren’s Latest

¾ cup pumpkin puree

¾ cup ricotta cheese

½ cup heavy whipping cream

1/3 cup granulated sugar

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

½ teaspoon vanilla

Sugar cones or mini cups

Mini chocolate chips –to garnish

• In a large bowl, whip heavy whipping cream until firm peak forms
• Spoon whipped cream into a separate bowl and set aside.
• In the same bowl you used to whip the cream, stir pumpkin, ricotta, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, & vanilla together.
• Scrape sides and whip for 1 minute.
• Carefully fold in whipped cream.
• Pipe into sugar cones or mini cups and top with chocolate chips.
• Enjoy!

Mini Cannoli Cream Cups

In addition to the Cake Batter Dip, I also made these Mini Cannoli Cream Cups from Cooking with Sugar for last week’s book club. However, I ran into some issues and didn’t end up putting them out.

CookingWithSugar.com

I made the cream and the cups the night prior but kept them separate until right before I was going to serve them.

I started by making the cream as directed. This is where I ran into my issues.  Now I’ll admit, I didn’t watch the directional video posted on Cooking with Sugar. In hindsight, I probably should have.

I used the wrong attachment for the mixer. I should have used the whisk. Also, I don't think I mixed for as long as I should have.

The cream was very thin and watery. I put it in a gallon freezer bag and threw it in the fridge to chill, (hoping it would thicken). Then I went on to make the cups. I spread the cinnamon and sugar on the pie crust and pressed it in with a rolling pin.

Next step is to cut circles in the pie crust to press in the mini muffin tin. I didn’t have a round cookie cutter so I used a drinking glass.

The cup just happened to be the perfect size for the mini muffin trays! I pushed the pie crust into the cups.

And baked for about 8 minutes.

I sealed the cups in a separate zip lock bag and left them on the counter until right before serving.

Right before book club, I filled one up and taste tested it. I decided it wasn’t that great and didn’t put it out for my guests to try.

The Verdict: They came out terrible. The cream never thickened up and it didn’t taste anything like cannoli cream. It just tasted like straight up ricotta cheese. I will say that they did look very cute! The shells tasted good as well. What a shame that the cream left so much to be desired.

Things to Note/Consider: I believe they came out poorly due to user error. I definitely suggest mixing the cream well and use a whisk attachment. Sugar suggests straining the ricotta cheese a day ahead of time to make the cream thicker. If I ever decide to make these again, I would definitely try her tip.

Cannoli cream is just not my forte!

Mini Cannoli Cream Cups

adapted from Cooking with Sugar

For Cups

Flour for dusting the surface

Refrigerated pie crusts

3 tablespoons natural coarse sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

For Cream

1 (15oz) container of whole milk ricotta cheese

½ cup confectioner’s sugar

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ cup mini chocolate chips

• In a large bowl with an electric mixer combine all the ingredients for the cream except the chocolate chips until creamy.
• Put the cream in a freezer bag and chill while you make the cups.
• Unroll the pie crusts onto a lightly floured surface and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.
• Lightly roll with rolling pin to press in the cinnamon & sugar.
• Cut circles and press into ungreased mini muffin trays.
• Bake for 10 minutes at 425 degrees or until lightly golden.
• Once the cups are cool, they can be filled with the cream.
• Sprinkle with chocolate chips and confectioner’s sugar.

Chocolate Chip Cannoli Cupcakes

When I saw this pin for cannoli cupcakes, I just knew I had to give them a whirl. We all know how I love combining two sweets together. So, on Monday I gave them a go.

Food Network

Start by making the cupcake batter according to the directions.

Bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes. While the cupcakes are baking, go ahead and make the cannoli filling. This is where I ran into some trouble….

The recipe says to beat the ricotta cheese, confectioners’ sugar & vanilla for about 5 minutes. I beat the mixture for at least 8 minutes and it never formed into a creamy texture. I tried adding more sugar, it made no difference. I ended up just leaving it as is. Then I mixed in the mini chocolate chips.

Once the cupcakes are cool, you can fill them with the cannoli cream. I used a cupcake corer I purchased from Target (on sale!). The source site gives directions on how to core it with just a small knife. Once the cupcake is cored, fill it with the cream then put the top of the cupcake back on.

The final and easiest step is to make the whipped cream. Just beat the heavy whipping cream with sugar. Top the cupcake with a dollop and garnish with mini chocolate chips.

Another new plate from Grace

The Verdict: The cupcake portion of this recipe is delicious! One of the best cupcakes I’ve ever made. (And I was extra nervous because I don’t have a good track record with recipes that involve sour cream). The whipped cream was great as well but that's hard to mess up. The cannoli filling however, left much to be desired. I couldn’t get the right consistency and it tasted bland. There wasn’t much to it. But overall the cupcakes were great. In fact, I just had a few for dinner right now!

Things to Note/Consider: The cupcakes take about 75 minutes from start to finish. Next time, I would use less ricotta cheese and more sugar for the filling. Also, I would suggest making the holes in the cupcakes a tad bit deeper then I did so that they can be filled with more cannoli cream. Other than that, I wouldn’t change a thing! I will definitely be making these again!