Recipe: Pumpkin Cannoli Cones

Fall is my favorite time of year for a lot of reasons, but what I most look forward to about this season is the fact that all things pumpkin are everywhere. Pumpkin muffins, pumpkin spice lattes (or a Grande Iced Americano with 2 pumps of pumpkin syrup, if you’re Talia or Pam), pumpkin pancakes—I could probably sit down and write a ten-page list of all the pumpkin treats I would consume immediately if I had the metabolism for it. However, I will try to be a regular person and space out my pumpkin enthusiasm. (Boo.)

I came across these pumpkin cannoli cones from Lauren’s Latest on Pinterest and kind of immediately fell in love. You just can’t deny the perfect combination of pumpkin pie flavor with rich, creamy cannoli filling, especially when it takes less than 10 minutes to make start to finish. It’s the strongest support I can find for love at first sight, which I’m normally a firm non-believer in. But I digress…

I never thought to use sugar cones as a delivery device for cannoli filling, but honestly? It’s brilliant. I haven’t made cannolis from scratch, but I can only imagine they’re a pain to try to fill. Plus, when you eat them, they have a tendency to crack and filling gets everywhere. Being the borderline OCD neat freak that I am, I like to keep things as neat and mess-free as possible, so naturally I think this is the best way to eat a cannoli. Are sugar cones health food? Of course not. But hey, you can’t be completely healthy all the time. Or, you could…but you’d be missing out on things like pumpkin cannoli cones.

Pumpkin Cannoli Cones

Adapted from Lauren’s Latest

½ cup heavy whipping cream
¾ cup pumpkin puree
¾ cup part skim ricotta cheese
¼ cup sugar
½ tsp. pumpkin pie spice (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger & allspice)
½ tsp. vanilla
8 sugar cones
¼ cup chocolate chips

Whip cream in a large bowl until firm peaks form and set aside. In a separate bowl, combine pumpkin, ricotta, sugar, pumpkin pie spice and vanilla. Whip for 1 minute, then fold in whipped cream. Transfer the mixture to a pastry bag or gallon-size zip top bag with one bottom corner cut. Pipe filling into sugar cones and top with chocolate chips.

I had an insane amount of fun making these with Danielle and Christie (my partners-in-crime that helped me with this honey & beer-glazed chicken)—but then again, that might be because we decided the bag of filling was the udder of a “pumpkin cow” and originally plated the cones like this:

We’re adults, I swear. 

I did end up with some leftover filling, and something so delicious would be a terrible thing to waste. With one simple addition, I transformed them into a wonderful pumpkin-y breakfast treat. Check back tomorrow to see what I made!