Last weekend we had a brief moment of blast here in Seattle – 3 days of sunshine! You better imagine a lazy pregnant woman finally got out of her home and did all kinds of (long-awaited) outdoor activities. Well, we also decided to start baby shopping and putting up a nursery. Man, baby stuff is EXPENSIVE. I announced to Mr.186 that from now on we’ll only grocery shop at Trader Joe’s. It’s never too late to save up, right? 😂
I came up with this recipe, not exactly a dessert, but still totally satisfied my sweet tooth. I discovered my love for ricotta cheese while creating the crumpet post. Actually, I’ve loved ricotta cheese forever. I just don’t know the filling for cannolis is made from it before. Now I spot the skim ricotta cheese at TJ’s, I decided to do a lighter & healthier version of cannoli dip. (Keeping everyone covered in the New Year Resolution period😜)
Usually, cannoli filling is made with ricotta cheese, cream cheese (or mascarpone cheese), sugar, vanilla extract, and chocolate chips. This combination for sure is insanely tasty, but can be quite heavy. I decided to omit cream cheese and use honey as the sweetener. I love TJ’s has Honeycomb Honey at a reasonable price, but if you don’t have honeycomb, any regular honey works well here. I prefer pistachio cannolis anyways, so I added pistachio instead of chocolate chips. Just to make things more interesting (and brighten up the dish), I also added dried apricots. 🍑
As it is a very flexible recipe, feel free to substitute anything you don’t like. I’m not a big fan of dried apricot, but it worked surprisingly well here with pistachio and honeycomb. And it makes the dish look more like sunshine. When we don’t have much sunshine here, we create our own. 
Enjoy the dip with any kinds of cracker you like! I especially like the sweet and salty contrasts the TJ’s mini soy sauce crackers give, but of course, if you don’t care about calories, Ritz is the best.
All right, all right! Make sure to tag me #herbakinglab on Instagram if you made this healthier Honey Ricotta Dip. Until next time, happy dipping!
Honey Ricotta Dip
Yield: About 16oz dip
Author: HerBakingLab
Materials:
1. 1 jar of Trader Joe’s Part Skim Ricotta Cheese (16oz)
2. 3 tbsp honey, with honeycomb if you have it
3. a pinch of salt
4. 1/4 cup chopped roasted pistachio
5. 1/4 cup dried apricot (or any dried fruits you like)
PROCEDURE:
1. In a large bowl, mix everything together. Taste and adjust the sweetness level to your taste. Save some honey, pistachio and apricot for garnish if you want this to be presentable. Otherwise, dip with you favorite cracker and enjoy!
OBSERVATIONS & Notes:
1. My favorite “healthy” cracker to go with this dip is TJ’s mini multiseed rice cracker with tamari soy sauce. I love the sweet and savory contrast it gives, but of course, if you don’t mind the calories, Ritz is the best.
2. Store the dip in a clean airtight container. It will stay yummy for a week in the fridge.
3. Just let you know it doesn’t need to be fancy at all. I’ve mixed everything in the TJ’s Part Skim Ricotta Cheese jar and dip it straight out of the jar. No shame. 😂
