Looking for a deliciously easy, minimal ingredient and tasty recipe? This Cannoli Dip is the perfect solution, whips up quick and tastes amazing.
We love sweet dips around here. Unfortunately my site has been lacking on dip recipes! I really need to get better at that. This Cannoli Dip is a super easy recipe that you will love.
If you are a fan of the traditional Cannoli, then you will love love love this dip. It is one of the easiest dips you will ever whip up and everyone will absolutely love it.
We absolutely love it, but I love Cannoli’s in general so why not take that delicious filling and make it into a dip? I mean seriously, it’s less time and effort that making cannoli’s themselves.
I’m a dessert kind of girl if you haven’t noticed and I don’t shy away from any kind of dessert because I love them all, but when it comes to sweet dips, gimme!
I can’t say enough about this Cannoli Dip, it really tastes like your eating a Cannoli, but not. So you kind of get the best of both worlds with this recipe.
Some of my favorite dips we have on our site include Pumpkin Dip, Salted Caramel Chocolate Dip and Cinnamon Roll Cheesecake Dip.
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
- Using only 5 ingredients this recipe is quick to whip up.
- You can easily double this batch to serve more people.
- You can use this dip as a cannoli filling if you’d like just don’t drain your ricotta.
INGREDIENTS NEEDED (FULL RECIPE AT BOTTOM):
Whole milk ricotta cheese
Mascarpone cheese
Powdered sugar
Vanilla extract
Mini chocolate chips (your favorite flavor)
HOW TO MAKE CANNOLI DIP, STEP BY STEP:
- Place four layers of paper towels on a flat surface, with a rubber spatula spread the ricotta cheese over the top until you get a thin layer, make sure you leave a decent perimeter around the edge of the towels.
- Using four more layers of paper towels, put on top of ricotta cheese and press removing any excess moisture from the cheese. Depending on how absorbent your paper towels are you may have to do this a few times.
- Next, scrape the ricotta cheese off of the paper towel and place in a large bowl or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add in the mascarpone cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla, and chocolate chips and mix until combined.
- Once combined, place in a serving bowl and serve with your favorite fruits, cookies, etc.
WHAT IS A CANNOLI?
Cannoli’s are an Italian pastry that consist of tube-shaped shells of pastry dough that has been fried. It is then filled with a sweet, creamy filling usually containing a ricotta mixture with different types of add-ins.
The add-ins that are usually used can be chocolate chips, dipped in crushed pistachios or other various ingredients of your liking, we went with the mini chocolate chips.
DO I HAVE TO USE MASCARPONE CHEESE?
Other recipes may use cream cheese in this recipe, but if you are looking for a more authentic Cannoli flavor then you will want to use the mascarpone cheese.
You can use cream cheese in a pinch if you’d like, but the flavor will be slightly different.
WHAT CAN I SERVE WITH CANNOLI DIP?
There are lot’s of fun things that you can serve this with, fruits, cookies, baked cannoli shells, graham crackers, pretzels, etc.
Anything that you think would go good with this mixture is perfect to serve it with, our favorite is strawberries and graham crackers, they are our go to.
HOW TO STORE:
This dip if not eaten in one sitting can be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container where it will keep for up to one week. Let come to room temperature for about 15 minutes before serving.
You can also freeze this, place in a freezer bag and place in the freezer and it should last for up to one month, let it defrost in the refrigerator before serving.
TIPS AND TRICKS:
- This is a thicker dip because of the mascarpone, you can make it thinner by skipping draining the ricotta which will also make it a little smoother.
- Make sure you strain the ricotta with paper towels, using a cheesecloth will trap moisture in the ricotta cheese ball itself.
- If you want to reduce the vanilla in the recipe you can, we feel like it balances the flavors out well although it seems like a lot.
- Cream cheese can be used in place of the ricotta in a pinch.
- This makes roughly 4 cups of dip.
- If you want to make this a little sweeter you can add up to 1/2 cup more of powdered sugar but I don’t recommend any more than that or it may be too sweet.
- Use any of your favorite flavor of chocolate chips for this recipe, we like semi-sweet to balance the sweetness.
- This can be frozen, see my tips above.
Looking for a deliciously fun and easy recipe to serve at your next gathering? Then this Cannoli Dip cannot be skipped, everyone will fall in love.
If you like this recipe you might also like:
If you’ve tried this EASY BANANA BREAD or any other recipe on my site, let me know in the comment section how it turned out, we love hearing from our readers! You can also follow along with me on PINTEREST, FACEBOOK and INSTAGRAM to see more amazing recipes and what shenanigans I’m getting into!
Cannoli Dip
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups whole milk ricotta cheese about 1 (15oz.) container
- 8 oz mascarpone cheese softened
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 Tbs vanilla extract
- 1 cup mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- Place four layers of paper towels on a flat surface, with a rubber spatula spread the ricotta cheese over the top until you get a thin layer, make sure you leave a decent perimeter around the edge of the towels.
- Using four more layers of paper towels, put on top of ricotta cheese and press removing any excess moisture from the cheese. Depending on how absorbent your paper towels are you may have to do this a few times.
- Next, scrape the ricotta cheese off of the paper towel and place in a large bowl or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add in the mascarpone cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla, and chocolate chips and mix until combined.
- Once combined, place in a serving bowl and serve with your favorite fruits, cookies, etc.
Notes
- Nutritional value is calculated by cup.
- This dip is a thicker consistency because I wanted to replicate cannoli filling as close as possible, but the mascarpone does thicken it quite a bit.
- If you prefer a softer, smoother dip, you can skip draining the ricotta.
- I donโt recommend using a cheesecloth to squeeze the ricotta because a lot of moisture still gets trapped in the center of the ball, this is a much more effective way to remove the excess moisture.
- Yes, there is a lot of vanilla in this recipe. You can reduce it, but I really think it helps smooth out the flavor.
- Many other recipes use cream cheese in cannoli dip, but mascarpone is much more authentic to an Italian dessert AND itโs not as overpowering flavorwise.
- This dip can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 1 week after making, it will stiffen so let it sit at room temperature for about 15 minutes then re-beat with a hand mixer to soften it back up.
- Even though the ingredients add up to 4 ยฝ cups, once the ricotta has been drained it loses some of its volume and the recipe yields about 4 cups of dip.
- Up to an additional ยฝ cup of sugar can be added to make it sweeter, but I wouldnโt add more than that or the flavor of the sugar can become overpowering.
- This can be frozen, see my tips above.
Nutrition
Tornadough Alli is not a nutritionist or dietitian, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and nutritional value is important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories and values can vary depending on which brands were used.
Jim G.
Brought this to a friends BBQ today…would you believe a pound and a half serving gone in less than 10 minutes…I mean clean bowl gone…
Gave you all the credit Alli…๐