I grew up enjoying slabs or scoops of spumoni to help cleanse my family’s palates after our weekly dinner at any given Italian joint around Chicagoland. We always ordered at least one spumoni “for the table” which, for some reason, always made perfect sense, but as my wife, Sarah, pointed out to me way back in 2000 when she first started “coming around” the family, “Why do you guys order canoe-loads of appetizers, entrees and sides, but when the time comes for dessert, you like, order one thing….for the table, to split, like one little dessert for 10 large people. I want my own dessert, I had a salad and some chicken breast meat, I crave my own dessert and would prefer not to watch it get passed round-the-horn while you and your family absolutely decimate it spoon by spoon until it finally makes its way back to me; a puddle of crumbs, a schmeared shell of its former self. I just want my own dessert, Babe….” So I say, “…but spumoni has like, three different flavors in one.” Twenty-three years later, we are still in love, yet sharing desserts.
| Level: | Intermediate |
| Total: | 55 min |
| Active: | 40 min |
| Yield: | 8 servings |
Ingredients
- 24 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
- 18 tablespoons (2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 3 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- Kosher salt
- 7 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 1 cup maraschino cherries, halved and juice reserved
- 2 tablespoons pistachio flavor instant pudding
- 2/3 cup shelled pistachios, coarsely chopped
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2/3 cup mini chocolate chips
- Pizzelle cookies, for serving
Instructions
- For the cherry layer: Using a stand mixer, add 8 ounces cream cheese, 6 tablespoons butter, 1/4 cup heavy cream, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and a pinch of salt and beat on medium speed until fluffy and smooth, about 2 minutes. Add 2 1/3 cups confectioners’ sugar. Mix until combined and smooth. Add the cherry juice. Beat until creamy, about 1 minute. Fold in the maraschino cherries. Refrigerate while you make the other layers.
- For the pistachio layer: Using a stand mixer, combine 8 ounces cream cheese, 6 tablespoons butter, 1/4 cup heavy cream and a pinch of salt and beat on medium speed until fluffy and smooth, about 2 minutes. Add 2 1/3 cups confectioners’ sugar and mix until combined and smooth. Fold in the pistachio pudding mix and pistachios. Refrigerate while you make the last layer.
- For the chocolate layer: Using a stand mixer, combine the remaining 8 ounces cream cheese, remaining 6 tablespoons butter, remaining 1/4 cup heavy cream and a pinch of salt and beat on medium speed until fluffy and smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the remaining 2 1/3 cups confectioners’ sugar and mix until combined and smooth. Fold in the cocoa powder and mini chocolate chips. Refrigerate until firm, about 15 minutes.
- To assemble, add each filling to its own pastry bag or a resealable plastic bag and snip off the end.
- In a shallow rectangular baking dish, pipe the chocolate and pistachio fillings on the two end sections of the baking dish. Fill the middle section of the baking dish with the cherry (you want to pipe the cherry filling last since it’s a little thinner than the others). Smooth the top with an offset spatula.
- Serve with halved or broken pizzelle cookies for dipping!
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 8 servings |
| Calories | 1259 |
| Total Fat | 75 g |
| Saturated Fat | 43 g |
| Carbohydrates | 144 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 g |
| Sugar | 131 g |
| Protein | 10 g |
| Cholesterol | 184 mg |
| Sodium | 732 mg |
Reviews
This makes a lot! It is super rich. Only make this is you are serving a large crowd. The pizzelles crumble when you try and scoop it but they are really good. I used Biscoff cookies too and they worked better. I just didn’t wish it made so much.
I was waiting to make this dip for our Italian Christmas dinner with the family. It was a hit and everyone enjoyed it! It is true that the pizzelles crumbled. I ended up providing spreading utensils for guests to use and that definitely helped. I also did not go threw the hassle of piping into a dish. I served each dip in separate bowls. As for the recipe instructions. It calls for 3 tsps of vanilla, but only mentions to place in the cherry mixture. I went ahead and used 1 tsp vanilla in the other 2 flavors. I’m not sure what I did wrong with the cherry mixture. It still was good but there was way more cherry dip than the chocolate & pistachio. I used a 16 oz jar of cherries and juice. When I measured the cherries on my kitchen scale there was 8 oz (1 cup) of the actual fruit. I chopped them in halves. If I make this dip again I will cut the amount of juice and cut the cherries into quarters.
Made for our annual Christmas gathering. Doubled recipe. Had enough leftovers for home. The pizelles kept breaking so very hard to dip better to have a spoon for each flavor. Had sugar butter cookies on hand used those also. Really loved this recipe it was very festive, very easy, very fun to make, and eat. Everyone at the party loved that it was unique and a new recipe. I’m pretty sure it also will have people watching The Kitchen. Can’t wait to try the other recipes from this episode. Mom and I love love your show.
Took this to a party. It was a hit! I doubled the recipe and put each flavor in a bag. I just scooped into an oval dish by flavor so I could refill each flavor. I did not purchase enough conf sugar (my bad) so had to run back to the store. Make sure to figure that out. I served on a larger oval tray so I could spread pizzelles around it. Also used cannoli chips. Rave reviews! Thanks Jeff!!