Cannoli Ice Cream
This Cannoli Ice Cream has the best flavors of a classic cannoli as a refreshing frozen treat! Just blend up a handful of ingredients, pour into an ice cream maker, and 20 minutes later you have cannoli perfection.
In my early teen years, my best friend and I would about half a mile from her house to a little strip mall that had a bakery. We would buy a cannoli, get snacks and drinks from the convenience store across the street, and then walk a mile back past her house to the Barnegat Bay. We would sit near the shore and enjoy our snacks and savor our cannoli.
I love cannoli cream. I could eat all the cream from all the cannolis and be content. Forget the shells. The cream is the important part. The flavor of ricotta with a hint of cinnamon and a touch of vanilla is scrumptious. With summer coming I’m on an ice cream kick and what better way to enjoy cannoli cream than frozen into a cannoli ice cream!
This easy ice cream recipe is low carb, keto, gluten-free, grain-free, sugar-free, and Trim Healthy Mama friendly.
How To Make Cannoli Ice Cream
Let me start off by saying that this is one of my favorite ice cream recipes because it’s so delicious and creamy. It’s simple to make and will keep you and your hungry family happy to indulge. Let’s get started!
First Step: Put the heavy cream, ricotta cheese, almond milk, sweetener, vanilla, cinnamon, egg yolks, and glycerin in a blender. Mix together until it’s smooth. This may take a few minutes to make the ricotta smooth enough.
Second Step: Put the cannoli ice cream mixture into your ice cream machine and freeze it according to the manufacturer’s directions.
Third Step: Add the chocolate chips when it’s almost done in the ice cream machine or add them on top. Enjoy!
That’s all there is to it! Can you believe how simple it is to make ice cream at home? Now you can have it anytime you want.
Can You Eat Ice Cream On A Keto Diet?
You aren’t able to eat traditional ice cream when you are on a keto diet, but that’s where this cannoli ice cream shines. It’s keto and perfect for giving you something sweet that’s not loaded with sugar and carbs. I am all for that, and it tastes just as good as I remember eating growing up. So if you eat a low carb diet, this is one ice cream recipe you can have with no worries.
Do I Have To Have An Ice Cream Maker To Make This Cannoli Ice Cream Recipe?
Using an ice cream maker saves you lots of time, and you can be enjoying your amazing treat much sooner. It’s not required to use an ice cream maker, but now that I have one, I wouldn’t have it any other way. The flavor and texture with my ice cream machine are incredible, so that’s why it’s my preferred method.
If you don’t want to invest in an ice cream machine, you could blend all the ingredients and put them in a freezer-safe container. Then freeze the container, and every 30 minutes to an hour, you’ll need to stir it. Once it seems to be starting to freeze well, you can spread out your stirring to every hour to an hour and a half. After it’s all the way frozen, it will be ready to eat.
Or you can just pour the ice cream base into an ice pop mold and make cannoli pops!
What’s The Best Way To Store Homemade Ice Cream?
Keeping the ice cream in an airtight freezer-safe container or containers is a must. You can keep it stored in single-serving sized containers or one big one. Either way, homemade ice cream (or any ice cream for that matter) does much better when you store it towards to back of the freezer. If you keep it in the door, it will go bad much sooner because when the door opens, it will defrost a little bit. This will cause ice crystals to form like crazy.
The amount of time it’s going to last is going to vary a fair amount. But typically, it will keep for at least a couple of weeks, if not longer.
Optional Cannoli Ice Cream Toppings
Usually, when we eat a bowl of cannoli ice cream, we will just sprinkle a few chocolate chips on top and start devouring it. However, there are times when some of the family members want something a little extra. Consider some of these ideas next time you are wanting something different.
- Cinnamon – Sprinkle a dash or two of cinnamon on top before serving. It gives it some great color and tastes good too.
- Chocolate sauce – It’s so easy to whip up a batch of this warm and delicious hot fudge sauce. It will make you want to lick the bowl clean too.
- Whipped topping – We love to add just a little bit of homemade whipped cream to the top of our ice cream sometimes. It makes you feel like you are eating it in an ice cream parlor!
- Pistachios – You could really use any kind of nut you like, but pistachios go well with the flavor of the cannoli ice cream.
If you are a fan of this cannoli ice cream, don’t forget to try some of my other keto ice cream recipes too!
Like what you see? Follow me on Facebook! Love this recipe? Leave a comment & 5-star rating right here! Make sure you don’t miss new recipes by getting email updates!
Want to Save This Recipe?
Enter your email below & we'll send it to your inbox. Plus get great new recipes from us every week!
By submitting this form, you consent to receive emails from Joy Filled Eats
Cannoli Ice Cream
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 1/2 cups ricotta cheese
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1/2 cup Joy Filled Eats Sweetener (or see alternatives in recipe notes)
- 1/8 tsp vanilla
- 1/16 tsp cinnamon
- 3 egg yolks use pasteurized if you are concerned with consuming raw eggs
- 1 tsp glycerin optional, but recommended - this keeps the ice cream soft enough to scoop
- sugar free chocolate chips optional
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in a blender. Blend until smooth.
- Pour into an ice cream machine. Freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.
- If using chocolate chips you can add them during the last few minutes in the machine or just sprinkle on top.
Notes
Nutrition
Originally Published April 27, 2016. Revised and Republished April 29, 2020.
Made this several times and it’s AWESOME!
Taryn, I’m really sorry I said it was bland. I just had some today and it tasted far far better to me. Perhaps I was just having an off-taste kind of day the day we made this. It really is good.
Thanks Carole. Sometimes things taste better after the flavors have time to meld 😀
Flavor was bland. Even with added vanilla.
I’m sorry you found it bland. Have you ever had cannoli cream before? Even the real stuff is basically just ricotta cheese and powdered sugar so the flavor of the ricotta can shine.
This looks yummy!!! Could you use marscapone cheese instead of ricotta?
Sure!
This recipe is FANTASTIC! my child is on a STRICT ketogenic diet. His classroom was having an ice cream social, and I sent him with a cup of this, he loved it, and my hubby and I ate the rest.
It.
Was.
Delicious.
I subbed in 3T coconut oil for the glycerin, but I’m not sure if it helped, our freezer is quite cold, and it was still a brick. 30 seconds in the microwave helped thaw it quickly.
I also used a stevia type sweetener, 3/4 t worked for the plain recipe.
I dont have a churn so I put it in a gallon zip top bag and kneaded it every half hour or so until it was almost set, then transferred it into a bowl.
Did another batch last night and added 2 heaping Tablespoons of cocoa powder, and another 1/4 t sweetener, and it is really good too.
This will be our go to ice cream base. I’m even shopping ice cream makers it’s so good! I cant wait to try it with fruit added in.
Hi, this recipe looks amazing! Curious about Barnegat Bay, I’m from NJ & I don’t know of any other Barnegat Bay. Are you from NJ as well?
Unfortunately I cannot do heavy cream, any substitution suggestion?
Thanks, keep up the good work! God bless you
Yes! I’m a Jersey girl 🙂 I grew up on a town on the Barnegat Bay and now live more north in Central NJ.
You could use a low carb milk such as Fairlife but the ice cream may be icier. If you could use a little cream, even light cream, that would help.
Thanks for your suggestions ‘Jersey girl’! I grew up in a woodsy town by the Barnegat Bay, now I’m about a block away. I have fantasies of affording a house by the beach. Thanks again, enjoy our heat & humidity!
I have made two other Cannoli ice cream recipes neither of which would set (ricotta soup). I’ve been hesitant to try another recipe but everyone’s comments seems pretty successful. I have a Cuisinart machine and works fine with other recipes. Anyone had any issues with this not setting?
Did you have to heat the other recipes? I’ve never had trouble with this setting but I don’t mind using raw egg yolks. As long as your bowl is frozen solid and the mixture is cold it should set without a problem.
The only problem that I had was the ricotta cheese had a slight aftertaste. I probably would try a different brand. I used Galbani cheese which was a little grainier to me over some of the others.
VEGETABLE GLYCERIN??
The vegetable glycerin helps the ice cream to stay scoopable in the freezer. If you don’t mind letting the ice cream sit out at room temperature for about half an hour before scooping you can omit the glycerin.
Loved the ice cream…it is rich and wonderful…but I am confused about the carb count. Everytime I imput it in a calculator it comes out with 9g carb and I used the exact ingredients…could you help with the confussion?
Are you subtracting the sugar alcohols in the sweetener? Those do not count in the carb count. I subtract them manually before adding my nutrition table.
I finally bought ricotta cheese to make this! The flavour is awesome, however, the texture is very grainy. I have a vitamix and blended this on high plenty long, so I’m a little confused. Or is this just the nature of the ice cream? It’s got the same texture as the ricotta.
It could be the sweetener that is grainy. The ricotta has more texture than a cream based ice cream but shouldn’t be grainy after blending.
I used Gentle Sweet. It’s not like the grainyness of un-powdered sweetener. It’s the exact same as when I take a spoonful of the ricotta. Could it make a difference that it’s whole milk ricotta? Or do brands matter?
The brand might matter. I would try blending the ricotta on it’s own before adding the other ingredients. With a decent blender it should get smooth.
I used light ricotta and it was not grainy at all. Great recipe! The only thing I missed were the pistachios! Thanks for sharing. This is a keeper!
Maybe you didn’t powder the sweetener first?
Any thoughts on the best place to purchase pasteurized egg yolks?
You can check the store locator here: http://www.safeeggs.com/store-locator
Thanks so much for the help! Sadly, the locator says there isn’t anywhere in my area that sells these. I’m open to other options if anyone knows of any! Thanks again.
If you don’t mind waiting you can heat the ice cream base to temper the egg yolks. Then you need to chill it before adding to the ice cream machine. There are instructions here: http://www.cookinglight.com/cooking-101/how-to-temper-eggs-ice-cream
Thanks! I’m new to homemade ice cream making, so I probably need to learn that skill anyway. 🙂
I made this last night. Easy and delicious! Feels like I’m cheating, but nice to know I’m still eating low carb! 🙂 I used MCT oil instead of the glycerin since I didn’t have any of that on hand. Thanks for all of your great recipes! I’ve made at least 8 of them and they are all amazing!
Great idea using MCT oil, as it will help bump up the fat ratio!
Wow. This ice cream is fantastic!!! No weird aftertaste like the other low carb ice cream recipes I have tried lately. It really tastes like cannoli cream! My mom tried it and said it reminded her of the flavor of rice pudding. 🙂
Wondering about the glycerin Where do you get it?
I order it from Amazon.
I had Stevia Glycerite but no glycerin so I used the glycerine instead. I was hoping it was close enough. Since the ice cream didn’t “stay” scoopable (but was scrapeable at least) I’m thinking it isn’t quite the same. Can you share which glycerin you purchase? I take it any food grade vegetable glycerin will do. Which ones have you tried/liked? Thanks!
Yes, any food grade vegetable glycerin. You can also just let the ice cream sit out for about 30 minutes before scooping. I’ve used Now Foods brand most recently. There are several on Amazon. http://amzn.to/2sELzIz
One question, how much is a serving size?
About 1/3 of a cup.
it says in the directions 8; 1/2 cup servings. I don’t have an ice cream freezer can i put in a containers and freeze?
Without an ice cream machine, you could make this into popsicles but not ice cream. It would freeze too hard to scoop.