Lemon Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze
Lemon Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze, a delicious Italian dessert that goes down wonderfully well in Spring time and particularly at Easter, but also as delicious all year round, with the holiday season being the peak of the cookie baking. The cookies have a cakey, moist and light texture, with an intense lemon kick, while the glaze is beautifully zesty and smooth. Top them with sprinkles, lemon zest or edible flowers, and you have a fantastic seasonal dessert that everybody loves.
Servings: 20 cookies
Calories: 141kcal
Ingredients
For the cookies
- 250 g plain flour (2 cups)
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- 110 g soft butter (½ cup)
- 200 g granulated sugar (1 cup)
- zest from one lemon
- 1 teaspoon lemon extract
- 170 g ricotta cheese (⅔ cup)
For decorating
- 200 g icing sugar (confectioner's sugar, 1 ⅔ cups)
- juice from one lemon
- sprinkles (optional)
Instructions
- To make the cookies, add the soft butter and sugar to a large mixing bowl, and use a hand mixer to cream them.
- Crack in the egg, and beat again until you get a smooth, creamy texture.
- Add the well-drained ricotta, lemon zest and lemon extract, sift in the flour and baking powder, and use a spatula to mix everything into a sticky dough.
- Refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour, making sure the bowl is covered with a kitchen towel.
- Flour 2 baking trays, and use your hands to shape walnut-sized balls out of the dough.
- Transfer the dough balls onto the baking trays, making sure you leave at least one inch between each cookie.
- Bake in the preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius (350 Fahrenheit) for 15 minutes or until golden.
- Remove the trays from the oven, and allow the cookies to cool down in the trays for 5 minutes, before transferring them to a cooling rack to cool down completely.
- Once the are fully cooled, make the icing sugar. Sift the icing, and add enough lemon juice to make a smooth icing that is pourable, but thick enough not to run off the cookies.
- Sprinkle the sprinkles around, and allow the icing to set before serving.
Video
Notes
- Refrigerating the dough helps with the texture of the cookies. Because ricotta adds moisture, refrigerating the dough ensures that the cookies hold their shape, and make the dough much easier to handle.
- Make sure you allow the cookies to cool down completely before glazing them, if they are still warm, the glaze will run off them, and make a mess. Decorate with sprinkles as soon as you glaze the cookies, once the glaze sets, the sprinkles won't stick anymore.
- Do not make the icing in advance, otherwise it will set before you can decorate the cookies. Make it just before they need decorating.
Nutrition
Calories: 141kcal | Carbohydrates: 30g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.4g | Cholesterol: 5mg | Sodium: 14mg | Potassium: 71mg | Fiber: 0.3g | Sugar: 20g | Vitamin A: 47IU | Calcium: 44mg | Iron: 1mg