Ice Cream Cannoli: New food WHAT?

You.  Guys.  I seriously can't even WAIT until next week to post this one.  I'm posting it now.  I have to.  It's in your best interest.  I'm just looking out for you.  If you're just here for the recipe...scroll on down cause this recipe has a full blown story.  (Although if you were to ask anyone that knows me...I almost ALWAYS have a story when a simple answer will do.)

Join me in my time machine...my Tardis, if you will...and we're going to go back in time a couple months.  No...weeks.  This happened just last month:

The week after school got out my mom and Kaylee and I went on a road trip up to Logan to go to the Taste of Home Cooking School show with my sister-in-law Alli.  Now, remember if you will that I LOVE to cook.  So naturally I was SUPER excited to go to this show.  They give you all kinds of goodies, a couple of magazines with a bunch of recipes in them and of course how can you turn down being put in the drawing for a $2,500 small appliance make-over!  Well my favorite part (aside from the hopes of winning big) of the show is that they show you how to make about 8 or 9 of the recipes from the magazines they've given you.  You can follow along, make notes, write down suggestions of changes if you're like the presenter and don't really like ricotta cheese...(ew.  Sorry.)  Basically...it's just a night of awesome.

Please go back and remember, however that I had my dear sweet little Kaylee with me.  At that point she was on the brink of 9 months old.  SO well behaved.  Such a good baby!  She'll sleep through anything!  Um...yeah.  If she's already ASLEEP!  But no.  No no no no no.  She was wide awake.  We got there an hour before the show started (gotta get good seats, man!) and she was awake and wanting to crawl.  So I took her out in the foyer (in a high school...with a filthy, dirty floor.  Don't judge.) and let her crawl and play and I chased her and totally wore her (aka: me) out.  I figured she'd totally zonk and I could enjoy the show with my perfect, sleeping baby sitting beside me in her stroller. (Are you laughing at my stupidity yet?)  I go in to the auditorium and place her in her stroller and BAM! She's awake and hollering.  Not like: "I'm mad and I hate my situation" holler.  Just: "I'm here and I want everyone to know it" hollering.  So I get her out, I bounce her, mom tries bouncing her, we put her back in her stroller, now she's getting mad.  She was at that stage where you know the baby is tired but they won't go to sleep.  You know the one.  And then the show started.

Remember all the winning you can do?  Well that takes place throughout the show...and they encourage you to scream and yell and do a "Price is Right" dance on your way up to the stage or as you just stand at your seat.  Cause that'll help Kaylee sleep.

Point of that story?  I wasn't able to take notes like I wanted because I finally had to put Kaylee in her stroller and push her back and forth at the back of the auditorium.  Do I regret taking her?  Not at all.  Would I do it again?  Heavens yes!

ANYWAY.  What does this have to do with a new recipe?  Well.  One of the recipes they made was for a Chocolate Cannoli.  Unfortunately, I was up and rocking Kaylee and I didn't write down the substitute the cook had for the ricotta cheese in them.  Another unfortunate was that it requires special equipment.  A Pizzelle Iron.  Who has that?!  I mean really!

I looked it up on Amazon immediately and decided that this could be doable. It was expensive...but not ridiculous.  I could buy one for myself as a reward for doing something I disliked ("exercise every day this summer" passed through my thoughts).  I got excited and thought of all the other things I could put in one of these cannolis.  The show finished (no, I didn't end up winning anything and yes, Kaylee slept through the rest of the show) and the weekend ended. Mom and I headed home (with a slight detour to Smith and Edward's...holy cow...I could spend a LOT of money there) tired, happy and chatting about all the recipes we wanted to try and alter to our likes and dislikes. 

When I got home I went on and on to Joe about the cannolis and how awesome they are and how I wanted to buy a press for myself so I could make them.  Little did I know, Joe decided as I talked that since he hadn't gotten me a Mother's Day present he would get me a Pizzelle Iron for a late gift.  Less than a week later, guess what showed up at our door!  I've never been more excited about something in my life!  Well...that's probably a lie.  But I was incredibly excited!  I made cannolis that same day!  I didn't have anything for the insides except cool whip and chocolate pudding so I made a tasty (but super runny) "chocolate-pudding-thing".  They were so messy!!!  It's good though. :)

Last night, Joe and I went to a friend's house for dinner and games.  As is my nature, I asked what we could bring and decided I wanted to make cannolis.  What to put inside though?  Read on, my friends.  Here is the recipe for cool, summer treatiness.

Ice Cream Cannoli
Recipe by: Taste of Home Test Kitchen with a little twist by Susan

1 egg
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp almond extract
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder

In a small mixing bowl, beat the egg, sugar, butter, vanilla and almond extract until blended.  Poor 1 TBSP of batter into each mold and bake in a preheated pizzelle iron according to manufacturer's directions. (Cuisanart Iron set to 3 is what I used)

Remove the cookie from the iron and roll around a cannoli form (you can use the metal handle of a whisk) and set on a wire rack to cool.

This recipe will make 12 cannoli cookies.

After everything cools take ice cream (I had Toffee Crunch ice cream) and let it soften.  Use a spoon to put the ice cream in each of the rolled cookies.  Wrap each ice cream stuffed cookie with plastic wrap and set them in the freezer for a few hours so the ice cream would set back up.  (Originally I just set the stuffed cookies on a plate in the freezer....yeah....the ice cream was too soft and melty so it ran all over the plate.)

Melt half a bag of milk chocolate chips in the microwave and added a small spoonful of shortening (sounds gross but it makes the chocolate runnier and then it sets up faster). Unwrap the cannolis, one at a time and dip each end in the chocolate.  Put them on a piece of parchment paper or aluminum foil on the counter until all 12 are dipped.  Drizzle the rest of the chocolate over the top and ta-da!  You get this lovely result!

You could probably make some other type of something for the insides, but honestly, I think the ice cream was probably the best thing EVER.