Description
Delightful Cannoli Bites featuring crispy mini pie crust cups filled with a creamy ricotta and mascarpone mixture, enhanced with mini chocolate chips and a hint of vanilla. Perfect as a bite-sized dessert or party treat.
Ingredients
Scale
Pie Crust
- 1 premade pie crust
Filling
- 1/2 cup whole milk ricotta cheese, strained
- 1/4 cup mascarpone cheese
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar
- 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips, plus more for topping
Instructions
- Preheat oven: Set your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit to get it ready for baking the pie crust cups.
- Cut and shape crust: Unroll the room temperature pie crust onto a lightly floured surface. Using a 2 ½ inch round biscuit or cookie cutter, cut out 12 rounds. Place each round into an ungreased mini muffin tin and use your fingers to press the dough to fit snugly into each cup.
- Bake crust cups: Bake the prepared pie crust rounds for 12 minutes or until they turn a light golden brown. Remove them from the oven and let them cool for 15 minutes before filling.
- Prepare filling: In a medium bowl, mix together the strained ricotta cheese, mascarpone cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and mini chocolate chips until smooth and well combined.
- Fill pie cups: Spoon or pipe the ricotta filling into the cooled pie crust cups. For a neat presentation, use a piping bag or a zip-lock bag with a cut corner to fill the cups evenly.
- Garnish and serve: Sprinkle additional mini chocolate chips on top of the filled cups and dust with powdered sugar. Serve immediately and enjoy your delicious cannoli bites!
Notes
- You can strain ricotta cheese using a fine mesh sieve or cheesecloth to achieve a creamier filling.
- If you don’t have a piping bag, a resealable plastic bag with a small corner cut off works perfectly for filling.
- For a gluten-free version, use a gluten-free pie crust.
- Store leftovers in the refrigerator covered for up to 2 days; fill the cups just before serving to keep crusts crisp.
- Mini chocolate chips can be substituted with chopped pistachios or candied orange peel for variety.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 mini bite
- Calories: 120 kcal
- Sugar: 6 g
- Sodium: 90 mg
- Fat: 7 g
- Saturated Fat: 3.5 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 2 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 12 g
- Fiber: 0.5 g
- Protein: 3 g
- Cholesterol: 25 mg
