ITALIAN RICOTTA COOKIES — These soft, pillowy cookies made with ricotta cheese have a hint of lemon flavor and a pretty glaze that can be adorned with colored sprinkles to celebrate any holiday or special occasion.
A traditional holiday treat in Italy, these pretty Italian Ricotta Cookies are made soft and tender with the addition of ricotta cheese, and a lemon glaze that makes them the perfect little cookie to serve any time of year.
If you’ve never tried adding ricotta to your baked goods, don’t worry–they don’t come out tasting like ricotta cheese at all. Rather, the ricotta works a lot like buttermilk, making the cookies extra light and fluffy.
If you’ve ever added ricotta to a cake recipe, or made ricotta pancakes, you know what a wonderful addition it is to so many baked goods.
Ricotta cookies were originally served for the Feast of St. Joseph, the patron saint of families, but depending on the sprinkles you use on top, they can be made for any celebration or special occasion.
Although you’ll most often see these dainty morsels on holiday cookies trays, don’t limit yourself to making them just once a year.
This recipes features lemon zest and juice in the cookies and glaze, which give them a slight citrus flavor, and makes them perfect for spring and summer celebrations too.
Other popular flavor enhancements are vanilla (which I use in all ricotta cookies), orange, lime and almond extract.
This is one cookie where you definitely don’t want to skip the glaze. The cookies on their own are a little bland and boring, and the glaze is what makes them really special, and allows you to adapt the look of the cookie to match the occasion.
This is a great cookie recipe for holiday baking, parties and entertain, because it makes about 4 dozen small cookies. But they do freeze well if you don’t need so many all at once. You can also freeze balls of the dough to bake up whenever a cookie craving strikes.
Perfect for the holidays, these Italian Ricotta Cookies are a sweet, soft, delicious addition to any celebration, any time of year.
Be sure to save this recipe for Italian Ricotta Cookies to your favorite Pinterest board for later.
Here’s what you’ll need to make Italian Ricotta Cookies
- Ricotta cheese
- Sugar
- Butter
- Eggs
- Vanilla
- Lemons
- Flour
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Powdered sugar
- Milk
- Colored candy sprinkles
Italian Ricotta Cookies
Ingredients
For the cookies
- 1 cup butter softened
- 1 3/4 cups sugar
- 15 ounces ricotta cheese 1 3/4 cups
- 2 eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest
- 4 1/4 cups flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
For the glaze
- 1 tablespoon butter melted
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/4-1/2 cup milk
Instructions
- In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in ricotta, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice and lemon zest until smooth.
- In another large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Add to butter mixture and mix until combined. The dough will be thick and sticky.
- Refrigerate dough for 2-3 hours, or until you can shape the dough with your hands. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll dough into walnut sized balls and place 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheets.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until edges are just golden. Cool completely.
- Meanwhile, make the glaze by stirring melted butter, powdered sugar, lemon juice and vanilla together in a medium bowl. Add 1/4 cup of the milk and mix until smooth. Gradually add the remaining milk, as needed, until glaze reaches desired consistency.
- Spoon the glaze over the cookies, then sprinkle with colored candy sprinkles.
Video
*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
Nutrition
Never miss a Let’s Dish Recipe:
Facebook | Pinterest | Instagram | Twitter
If you love this recipe, you might also like:
More Delicious Cookie Recipes
Cream Cheese Snowball Cookies
These simple but delicious shortbread-like cookies with cream cheese always look so pretty on a holiday cookie tray!
Swedish Sugar Dreams Cookies (Drömmar)
Made with a special secret ingredient (ammonium carbonate) these traditional buttery sugar cookies will literally melt in your mouth.
Easy Almond Orange Cookies
These melt-in-your mouth cookies feature chopped almonds, almond extract and orange zest. They're pretty, delicious, and perfect for your holiday cookie trays.
Award Winning Lemon Crinkle Cookies
These soft and chewy cookies are bursting with lemon flavor. It's no wonder they're award winning!
Russian Teacake Squares
All the flavors of a classic Russian Teacake cookie, in an easy to make bar cookie form.
Pecan Sandies Shortbread Cookies
Delightful pecan shortbread cookies coated in powdered sugar. A holiday cookie classic!
Peppermint Meringues
These light and airy peppermint meringues are perfect for stirring into a cup of hot cocoa and look beautiful on a holiday cookie tray.
The Best Vanilla Bean Shortbread
These rich, buttery shortbread bars are infused with real vanilla flavor, and finished with a sprinkling of sugar for added texture and sparkle. A holiday classic!
Who Dished It Up First: Adapted from All Recipes
1 comment
Diane
Just wanted to say I made them ricotta cookies and they are totally mouth – gasm! Unreal how they turned out. Will definitely make again. Right now I put a batch in the freezer for another day. Thank you for the beautiful beautiful recipe!