Chocolate Dipped Cannoli’s
Approx. 24 small cannoli's
Ingredients
2 Cups, Ricotta Cheese, Whole Milk
3/4 Cup, Powdered Sugar, plus extra for dusting
4 oz, Cream Cheese, softened
1 Teaspoon, Cinnamon
1/4 Teaspoon, All Spice
1 Teaspoon, Pure Vanilla Extract
Zest, 1 Lemon
1/4 Cup, Heavy Cream
1 1/2 Cups, Mini Chocolate Chips, Semi Sweet
1 small bag, Pistachio’s
2 Cups (depending on how many you are making/dipping), Semi Sweet Chocolate, for melting (I use the regular size chocolate chips)
Cannoli Shells, store bought or homemade *(I used store bought shells)
Instructions
Shell your pistachio nuts, split them evenly into 2 bowls. You’ll want a rough chop on one of the bowls of nuts. The other I chopped very finely in my mini processor so I could add them to my cannoli filling. Set nuts aside.
In your standing mixer, whisk the Ricotta Cheese just until nice and smooth. Add the cream cheese and powdered sugar, cinnamon, allspice and vanilla and mix just until combined. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again. Remove from mixer; transfer mixture to another bowl.
Clean mixer bowl, then add heavy cream. Beat cream with whisk attachment until it forms peaks and is fairly stiff. Fold into the bowl with the Ricotta cheese and gently combine the ingredients using a plastic scraper.
I then split my mixture into 2 separate bowls (separating it into 2 even amounts). To one of the bowls I added about 3/4 cup of the mini chocolate chips. To the other bowl I added my finely chopped pistachio’s. These will be your 2 different fillings for the cannoli shells. Place filling in fridge until you are ready to fill shells.
While filling is chilling, prepare the shells.
Over a double boiler, melt the chocolate. Start by adding 1 cup of the semi-sweet chocolate and as it starts to melt add the rest of the chocolate. Stir really well until nice and smooth. Turn heat to low to keep the chocolate loose while working on dipping the shells.
Pistachio Nuts
Dip the ends of each cannoli shell into the chocolate. 1/2 of my chocolate dipped shells also then got coated in the pistachio nuts. Place the shells on parchment paper to dry. Repeat until the shells are all dipped. I left a small handful of the shells with no chocolate on them in case some guests didn’t want all that chocolate.
Once the chocolate is all set on the shells you can then fill them. Using a piping bag, fill 1/2 way with your filling, pipe into each cannoli shell. The cannoli’s that have the mini chocolate chip filling can be dipped on the ends into some of your extra mini chips to finish them off.
Place on a platter. You can dust them with some extra powdered sugar and serve.
Mangia! Enjoy!
Notes
Be sure to fill the shells only right before you plan to serve them. If you fill them too soon or keep in fridge (with filling in the shells) too soon they will become soggy/soft. To ensure that you have a crispy shell it is worth it to wait until you are ready to serve them.
If you do not have a piping bag you can use a plastic bag, filling about 1/2 way, cutting one of the corners off the bottom to squeeze the filling through.
I like to make the smaller cannoli shells, especially if you have more than 1 dessert being served. You can also make the larger ones if you like.