Cross Ice Cream And Cannoli, Add Chocolate — Paradise!
In recent years there have been many attempts at innovative pairings. There's the famous croissant-doughnut pastry called the cronut, the lesser-known brookie (a brownie surrounded by a chocolate chip cookie), and the downright bizarre crotilla (a baffling mix between a tortilla and a croissant) recently introduced by Wal-Mart.
The latest arrival to the food hybrid scene is the "gennoli" — a gelato-filled cannoli, which sounds like a perfect match. The gennoli is a collaboration between two establishments in St. Louis, Missouri. Piccione Pastry and Clementine's Creamery have teamed up to create this creamy, crunchy, and inevitably tasty dessert.
If customers want to go completely mad, they can even opt for the chocolate-dipped gennoli, which consists of a crispy cannoli shell filled with gelato, dipped in chocolate, and served frozen — an Italian-style choco-taco!
"We're known not only for our authentic Italian pastries but also for a desire to deliver creative spins on best-selling items like the Crazy Cannoli," Piccione's pastry chef, Colleen McBryan, told The Daily Meal. "On a hot summer day in June, it didn't take long for our team to experiment with a cold treat. We thought: How do we add a Piccione twist to these delicious flavors of gelato? From there, the Gennoli was born! It's tough to choose a favorite Gennoli, but if I had to pick only one, I would choose the salted caramel dipped in chocolate. Then I'd come back the next day for Vanilla Bean!"
Both sides of the cannoli creation are already unique concepts within the food world. Clementine's Naughty and Nice Creamery is a micro-creamery (the only one in the state) that offers a line of boozy ice creams as well as more classic flavors that won't get you drunk. Then there's Piccione Pastry, a bakery with a unique twist — it's a late-night pastry shop, so sweet cravings can be satisfied well after business hours. If you live near (or find yourself passing through) St. Louis, seek out the gennoli or regret a missed opportunity forever!