For the past few years, any celebration that used to exist in my life (clubs, up all night and very questionable behaviors) has been replaced with quiet nights on the couch with my husband, while the kids are nestled in their beds. Typically I would be in bed before the ball even dropped. But now that the kids are a “bit” older, this year we are venturing out for New Years to a friend’s party.
It should be fun and of course I will need to bring something! I actually made this cannoli dip for my son’s first birthday and it was a stellar hit, but I always felt that the dippers bit needed adjusting. I used sugar cookies and assorted graham crackers, but felt that they didn’t pair up as nicely as I would have liked them. So for this fun and festive version I decided to use pieces of sugar cones, which pairs perfectly with this dip! At some point I will take the time to develop a good sugar cone recipe, but for now any old store bought version will do the job!
This is what you need……
2 Cups Ricotta Cheese
8 oz. Softened Cream Cheese
1 1/2 Cups Confectioners sugar (Powdered Sugar)
1 cup miniature chocolate chips
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
1/4 tsp. Almond Extract
1/4 tsp Ground Cinnamon
Colored Sprinkles or Jimmies depending where you are from 🙂
Miniature chocolate chips
1 box of Sugar Cones broken into dippable pieces
Before I ever began mixing anything, I drained the ricotta cheese a bit to remove some of the moisture. This can be achieved by lining a colander with some coffee filters and pouring the ricotta cheese into it. Let it drain in the fridge for a few hours. If you don’t have time for that it, fine but just note that the final dip may be a bit looser..still delicious, but looser 🙂
In a bowl combine Ricotta cheese and cream cheese and mix well. Add in vanilla extract, almond extract and ground cinnamon until fully combined. At this point you can now add in the confectioners sugar until it is all mixed and then add in the colored sprinkles and if you like mini chocolate chips.
To pull all of the color and fun together I topped it with a maraschino cherry!
I used sugar cones roughly broken as the main method to get dip into mouth! I just sort of crushed them and placed the big pieces on the tray with the dip, you will get some small pieces as you crush them, those can just be eaten immediately, sort of like quality control.
I hope you enjoy this last pot of mine from 2013! And before I go I just wanted to say thank you to each and every one of you that continues to follow me on this journey and encourages me along the way!
I hope 2014 is a spectacular year for you all! Filled with health, wealth and happiness for all!!
Happy New Year!
