Pizzelles with Cheesecake Cannoli Filling

We’ve taken all the trouble out of traditional cannoli by replacing their fried pastry shells with these easy pizzelles and stuffing them with a cinnamon-spiced ricotta and cream cheese filling!

When it comes to baking things, the Tart is one of those people with lots of ideas, but no direction. Recently, she had grand plans of making a Russian honey cake, with loads of thin layers of cake sour cream filling, and purchased couple of tubs of sour cream.  We scrapped the honey cake plan and she decided the sour cream would make some cake and a batch of cookies. Oh, and these cookies are frosted with cream cheese icing, and could the Beard pick up some cream cheese at the store? Later, she scrapped the cookie plan after making an awesome white bean chili and used most of the sour cream.  But, we still had cream cheese.

A Compromise

And so our Tart asked the Beard to find a recipe to use up the cream cheese. He suggested a peanut butter cheesecake, because he likes peanut butter and cheesecake.  Besides, what could go wrong with the combination? Tart looked for inspiration, ended up looking at cannoli and they reached a compromise: cannoli with cream cheese and ricotta filling.

I know, it’s not really a compromise, but he’ll get his peanut butter cheesecake eventually.

It’s no trouble at all.

Traditional cannoli involve making a pastry dough, wrapping it around a tube form, and deep frying the whole thing. When the tube is removed, you are left with crispy, fried pastry shell. Once cool, a sweet and cheesy filling is piped into the shells.  The fried shells are decorated with powdered sugar or chocolate chips, maybe some melted chocolate.  Or, you can proceed straight to the eating.  It’s up to you.

Here, we’ve skipped all the trouble of wrapping an uncooperative pastry around the tube and deep frying it.  We switched out the pastry shells for pizzelles, freshly baked in a pizzelle iron.  Then, you shape the shells on the handle of a wooden spoon or butter knife while still warm.

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Baked Cannoli with Cheesecake Filling

Ingredients

Cannoli Pizzelles

• 6 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3 cups flour
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp almond extract

Cannoli Cheesecake Filling

• 1 lb cream cheese (2 8oz packs) softened
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• 2/3 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 2 tsps vanilla extract
• 2 tsps ground nutmeg
• 2 tsps cinnamon
• 1 1/4 cups mini chocolate chips divided

Instructions

Pizzelle Cannoli Shells

1. Beat eggs, oil, and sugar together in a large mixing bowl until it is smooth and resembles a thin batter.  Beat in the vanilla and almond extracts, then the baking powder.

2. Gradually add the flour, 1 cup at a time, beating the mixture until smooth between each addition.  Let batter rest for 20 minutes before using it.

3. Follow directions for your pizzelle maker – ours takes a little more than 1 tbsp of this batter for each pizzelle.  Remove pizzelles from cooking plate and quickly wrap around a cannoli form, dowel, or whatever you prefer to use to shape them into tubes (we used both wooden spoon handles and the handles of our butter knives).  Work quickly, because they will harden as they cool, so you want to form them as quickly as possible.  Don’t try to do things too quickly, otherwise you’ll end up with broken tubes and/or burnt pizzelles on the cooking plates.   

   Allow the tubes to cool completely before filling.

Cannoli Cheesecake Filling

1. Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, beat your softened cream cheese until it’s fluffy.  Add heavy cream and continue to beat the mixture until it becomes smooth and light.  
   

2. Beat in the ricotta and combine until it is fully incorporated.  Gradually add the powdered sugar, beating the batter until smooth between each addition.
   

3. Stir in lemon juice, vanilla, nutmeg and cinnamon, and beat until the batter is fluffy.  Fold in 1 cup mini chocolate chips, then chill for at least 90 minutes before piping into your pizzelle tubes.
   

4. Fill the pizzelle tubes using an open piping tip and piping bag, or simply snipping the corner off of a plastic bag.  Place remaining chocolate chips in a small dish, and dip one end of a filled tube into the chips to garnish the cannolis.

Have you given this recipe a try, or do you have an idea of what could be improved?  Leave us a comment below!  We’d love to hear from you!

– Tart & Beard

The Tart

The Tart likes to eat, cook, and bake things.  She eats to work out, and she works out to be able to eat.