From Chef Oonagh Williams of Gluten-Free Cooking with Oonagh

I saw Erin Fehlau, one of the news anchors on NH’s ABC WMUR TV make this over Christmas with her kids. It reminded me that years ago I had been given a handwritten recipe of how to make cannoli shells and the filling. In my wheat flour days in my classes, we would bake strips of puff pastry with sliced almonds on top, fill them with the cannoli filling, dust with powdered sugar and call them cannoli napoleons. Very popular, easy and expensive looking.

This is the gluten-free recipe I was given. It’s very similar to Erin’s and others but this has orange zest and orange liqueur or rum added.

Gluten-Free Cannoli Dip

Ingredients:

• 1 lb whole milk Ricotta cheese – drained if very wet (Put ricotta cheese in fine sieve, appropriate size plate on top, weigh down with 2lb can of tomatoes and leave to drain into a bowl. You’ll be surprised at how much liquid drains off).
• ½ lb soft cream cheese or even mascarpone for richer flavor
• 2 tablespoons rum or orange liqueur or orange juice concentrate thawed for non alcohol version.
• 1+2/3 c powdered sugar – start with less sugar and you can always add more.
• 2 teaspoons gluten-free vanilla extract
• grated zest of one orange
• ½ c mini semi sweet chocolate morsels

Directions:

1. Mix ricotta cheese and cream cheese with electric mixer until very smooth. Then add liqueur, sugar, vanilla, orange and chocolate and preferably refrigerate for several hours to allow flavors to mix and mellow. Adjust amount of sugar, Grand Marnier etc to personal taste.

2. Serve with Blue Diamond honey and cinnamon nut thins, or any gf versions of waffle cones, sugar ice cream cones, vanilla wafers, cannoli chips, pizzelles, shortbread cookies. Spoon into mini chocolate shells, use as a filling for crèpes, freeze and serve as an ice cream, use to fill a cake, with fresh strawberries and other fruit.

3. You can put ricotta cheese in food processor to make it very smooth, but also thinner.

4. If too thin, sprinkle some instant vanilla jello pudding on top to help thicken.

Sprinkled with more mini chocolate morsels and homemade candied orange peel.

Reminderonly serve with gluten-free cookies etc.