Family Christmas

This year the Family Christmas is being held at our house. Lots of prep will go into this... and most of it has been completed. Jason and I purchased a tree and some decorations. We don't want to spend too much so we'll still use borrowed ornaments and not worry too much about our lack of Christmas Spirit in the house. The tree should arrive Tuesday and we'll get that set up.

My sister created a Pinterest Board for us to collaborate on food we'll be having. Since the wedding, everyone cannot stop talking about what an amazing job Joe Boccardi's did and how great the Cannenoli was. So we ordered Cannenoli as one of the main dishes. I plan to make other things, like Stuffed Meatballs and my all time favorite Tortellini Soup.

My sister is hopefully making a Tiramisu Cheesecake and I'm making Mini-Cannoli Cups.

I made a practice run of the mini-cannoli cups today. They are delicious!!!


Mini Cannoli Cups
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Start to Finish: 40 minutes
Servings: about 16 mini cups

Ingredients:
For Cups
Flour for dusting surface (Or use Parchment paper)
1 Pillsbury® refrigerated pie crust
Sugar & Cinnamon


For Filling
1 (15oz) container of whole milk ricotta cheese (strained/drain off liquid)
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar, plus extra for dusting finished cups
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips


Directions:
In a large bowl with an electric mixer combine all ingredients for the filling except the chocolate chips and mix well until creamy. Place the filling in a 1-gallon plastic storage bag and chill while you make the cups. Filling may seem thin but will firm up slightly when it’s refrigerated.

Heat oven to 425°F. Unroll the piecrust onto a lightly floured surface and sprinkle the top of each crust with the natural sugar and the cinnamon. Lightly roll over it with a rolling pin so that sugar and cinnamon are pressed into the dough. (This will help thin out the dough a little and result in 16 cut circles.)

With a 2 1/2-3 inch round biscuit cutter or cookie cutter*, cut out circles and lightly press them inside an ungreased mini muffin or mini cupcake pan to create a pastry cup.


Bake for about 10 minutes or until cups are golden. Remove from oven and allow cups to cool. Once cups are cool they can be removed from tin and filled.

Remove filling from refrigerator, cut one of the bottom corners off the bag and pipe a little less than a tablespoon of filling into the cooled cannoli cups.

Sprinkle with mini chocolate chips, dust with powdered sugar and serve.

Important Notes:
*If you don't have a biscuit cutter or round cookie cutter and can't find one *anywhere* in Walmart, a canned good is usually about 3-inches in diameter.

You can strain or drain the liquid off the ricotta. Highly recommend this.