Chocolate Almond Cannoli

In the traditional saying of my Minnesota heritage: Offtah.

I've been incredibly  busy lately, so there hasn't been a lot of action in the home oven these days. But, I did make time for my beloved dinner night this week, because the catharsis of a good meal  and good company is very important. My talented and awesome friends and I had our weekly girl's dinner night, and as per usual, it was an awesome success. We have a theme every week, and this week it was Italian, so  I decided to make my favorite Italian dessert, the Cannoli. 

First, a word or two about the shells. If you want to make them from scratch, they aren't incredibly complicated, but its suggested you use Cannoli  molds to shape the little buggers, and if you're not sure you're that invested in this sweet just yet, you can buy shells at almost any grocery store in the Italian section, or basically any  Italian Market. And while not at all as delicious as making your own, they're pretty good, and better than no cannoli at all... 

Here's a link for my favorite shell recipe if you're going to buy molds to get serious about your Cannoli making: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/cannoli-recipe/index.html

Chocolate Almond Cannoli
- 6 pre-made  ( or homemade cannoli shells)
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
-1/2 cup dark chocolate
-1/2 cup slivered almonds
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
-1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
-1/2 cup powdered sugar
-3 T. Amaretto liquer
-1 t. cinnamon
-1 T. orange zest
1-t. vanilla
Directions: whip cream until just about incorporated, then add the sugar, cinnamon, amaretto, orange zest and vanilla. Fold in the ricotta and mascarpone cheese until combined. Fill a piping bag (or plastic bag with a hole cut for piping) with filling  and fill shells. Melt chocolate with 1 T. canola oil, and drizzle on top of cannloi, then sprinkle almonds on top of hot chocolate so they stick.

 

 Holy Cannoli! Or as I like to lovingly call these, dessert tacos. If the shoe fits, right?

Crunchy, savory shells with creamy not-too-sweet filling, topped with rich dark chocolate and almonds. If you're a dessert lover like me who doesn't let too crazy about uber-sweet, these are the dessert for you. 

The only bad part about making these is that I had to buy a gigantic bottle of amaretto liqueur for the measly 3 T. I needed, so now I'm going to have to bake a bunch of stuff with amaretto in it... So if you're not into amaretto in your coffee, I'd say try to  get a tiny bottle. You can also use any coffee flavored liqueur, or just plain amaretto flavoring if you want to skip the booze all together.