The cookie baking season is almost here and I am so excited! I start planning for Christmas baking very early every year, to decide which cookies I can start baking in October and freeze for later, how many varieties of cookies I will be baking, and what ingredients and supplies I will need to buy. I make these lemon Ricotta cookies every year, and always make sure that I triple and quadruple the batch to have enough for friends and family as they’re probably our family’s favorite cookies. Having said that, these Italian Ricotta Cookies are made all year round in our house. They’re soft, delicious, and you will LOVE the simple vanilla glaze. If you’re looking for more Christmas cookie recipes for a cookie exchange or your cookie tray this year, check out my Italian Wedding Cookies, Christmas Pinwheel Cookies, and these delicious Spiced Rum Cookies.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Ingredients In Recipe
Here’s what you need to make these delicious Ricotta cookies: Complete list of ingredients and amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
For The Cookies
Dry Ingredients: All purpose flour, baking soda, and salt.Butter: Use unsalted softened butter for this recipe. If you only have salted butter, skip adding salt to the dry ingredients.Sugar: Use granulated sugar. These cookies are not too sweet, they’re just right!Ricotta: For best results, I recommend using fresh whole milk ricotta cheese. Take it out of the fridge 30 minutes before making the cookie dough. You can even make cookies with homemade ricotta!Egg: You will only need one egg to make 3 dozen cookies. Make sure that it’s at room temperature as it will incorporate better in the cookie dough.Vanilla: Always buy the best quality vanilla extract that you can afford, it makes a big difference. You can substitute vanilla extract with coconut or almond extract if you like.Lemon: The lemon is optional in this recipe, but adds so much brightness to the cookies. We will be using a small amount of lemon zest and fresh lemon juice.
For the vanilla glaze
You only need four simple ingredients to make the best ever cookie glaze!
Powdered Sugar: Just like any other icing or glaze recipe, we will start with powdered sugar or confectioners sugar. If it has been sitting in your pantry for a while, sift it first.Butter: Adding butter to the glaze will give it a luxurious mouthfeel that you just don’t get with a plain glaze.Milk: Add milk to thin out the glaze. You can use cow’s milk or plant-based milk here.Vanilla: To flavor the icing.Food coloring – optional. Here’s my secret to beautiful white glaze that looks like snow, add a couple of drops of white food coloring.
How To Make Recipe
Tips For Making These Cookies
Let Ingredients Come to Room Temperature. The butter, ricotta cheese, and the egg must be at room temperature in order to cream together smoothly. A room temperature egg incorporates better than a cold one. Mix the Flour In Slowly. To avoid making a floury mess, add half of the flour mixture in at a time, and mix on low. If using a hand mixer, do this at the lowest speed possible (make sure that your mixer has this setting or use a spatula instead). I use this KitchenAid hand mixer, and it’s honestly the best!Be Patient! The cookies must be cooled completely before adding the glaze, if you don’t wait the glaze might melt.Use a Cookie Scoop. It’s important that your cookies are uniform in size, this will make sure that they bake evenly and they will look better too!Make them round. If you want to make the cookies very round, roll them very quickly between your palms. The dough will be very soft to work with, so you will need to use a cookie scoop to quickly portion out the dough.Wondering what else to make with ricotta cheese? Try my easy Lemon Ricotta Pasta recipe!
Recommended Tools
Here’s what I use and recommend to bake these cookies:
Mixing Bowls. I use these Pyrex brand glass bowls for all of the baking and cooking that I do. They come in different sizes, last for ages, and are very comfortable to use.Hand Mixer. I love this KitchenAid hand mixer so much! It’s one of the most useful tools that I own and love, comes with 9 speeds and has a very low speed setting that not all mixers have.Measuring Cups and Spoons. These are perfect! They’re magnetic for easy storage, and I love the shape of the spoons that can easily fit any spice or herb jar (round ones can’t!).Baking Sheet. I always use this half size Nordicware sheet for cooking sheet pan dinners, and baking cookies. Perfect size, great material, and will last you for ages.Silicone Mats. I rarely use parchment paper, as I find lining my baking sheets with silicone mats is easier and gives great results. This is the Cookie Silpat Silicone Mat that you can see in the pictures, I love it!Cookie Scoop. I use a small 1 tablespoon cookie scoop for this recipe, it ensures that the cookies are uniform in size.
Save this recipe for the next time you’re in the mood for baking delicious cookies! I hope that you love them as much as I do. © Little Sunny Kitchen
