Italian lemon ricotta cookies are light and chewy cookies that are so delicious and really easy to make. These really easy Italian lemon cookies make a great addition to a cup of espresso or coffee and are prefect for anytime of year. If you love lemon and ricotta, you are going to love these cookies.
These Italian lemon ricotta cookies have a soft almost cake like texture and are very light. You can definitely eat a bunch without even noticing 🙂
For the lemon in these Italian lemon cookies, it is added only in the glaze that is added to the top of the cookies. By adding the lemon to the glaze, it really helps you get a light bit of lemon immediately with each bite.
You can add the lemon into the cookies if you prefer or if you don't want to make the glaze portion of this recipe.
Ingredients you will need:
- Unsalted butter.
- Ricotta Cheese. You really want to make sure you are using full fat ricotta for this recipe.
- Eggs.
- All purpose flour.
- Vanilla
- Baking soda.
- Baking powder.
- Kosher salt.
- Nutmeg.
- For the lemon glaze: powdered sugar, water and lemon.
All of the ingredients are fairly standard baking ingredients because this recipe is very uncomplicated. You will probably already have most of the ingredients already in your pantry.
How to make lemon ricotta cookies
Step 1: Cream butter and sugar.
Step 2: Now add ricotta and eggs then mix until smooth.
Step 3: Combine dry ingredients.
Step 4: Now mix dry ingredients with wet ingredients.
Step 5: Scoop out cookies with a small cookie or ice cream scoop then bake.
Step 6: Let cool completely.
Step 7: Add lemon glaze and allow to dry completely.
Tips for making these Italian lemon cookies
- When making these lemon and ricotta cookies, they do not spread much at all in the oven so you want to make sure you are scooping out the size cookie that you want to eat when it is done baking. To do this, I prefer to use a small cookie scoop to scoop out the ricotta dough and then gently smooth off the top of the cookie. Basically how the cookie looks before going into the oven is how it is going to look coming out 🙂
- Making the glaze portion of this recipe is really easy but maybe you'd prefer to skip this part but still have that lemon flavor. This is totally fine and I have added portions to use in the notes section of the recipe below if you want to do this.
- Storing these cookies is really easy. I like to leave them out on the counter (covered) for the first 48 hours. After this you can store them in the fridge covered for up to 4 days. Honestly, they probably will not last that long.
- Make sure you are using full fat ricotta when making these cookies. When baking with ricotta whether it is cookies or a whole ricotta pie, you want to make sure you are not going low fat because it will affect the flavor and texture if you do.
More Ricotta Recipes
If you love these Italian lemon ricotta cookies, you may also like these:
More Italian Sweets You May Like:
- Italian Cornmeal Cookies
- Buttermilk Panna Cotta
- Italian Rice Pudding
- Torta Tenerina Italian Chocolate Brownie Cake
- Blackberry Simple Syrup
Lemon Ricotta Cookies
Equipment
- 2 sheet pans
Ingredients
Ricotta Cookies
- 4 cups All purpose flour
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 16 ounces Ricotta full fat
- 8 ounces Unsalted butter at room temperature
- 2 Large eggs
- 1 teaspoon Baking soda
- 1 teaspoon Baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 ½ tablespoon Vanilla extract
Lemon Glaze
- Zest of 1 large lemon finely chopped
- 2 cups Powdered sugar
- 3 tablespoon water plus more if glaze is too thick.
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl cream butter and sugar until creamy and smooth.8 ounces Unsalted butter, 2 cups granulated sugar
- Now add ricotta, vanilla and eggs to the bowl and mix until smooth.16 ounces Ricotta, 2 Large eggs, 1 ½ tablespoon Vanilla extract
- In a separate medium sized bowl, add all of your dry ingredients.4 cups All purpose flour, 1 teaspoon Baking soda, 1 teaspoon Baking powder, ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg, ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- Mix well.
- Now add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until there is no more dry lumps of flour. The dough will be very thick and tacky.
- Place parchment paper on to 2 baking sheets.
- With a small ice cream scoop or similar, scoop out the cookie dough and place on to the cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.
- With your fingers, gently smooth the tops of the ricotta cookies.
- Place in the preheated oven and bake for about 10-12 minutes or until the cookies just start to lightly brown around the edges.
- Remove from oven and let cool completely on the pan.
Lemon Glaze
- In a medium bowl add the powdered sugar, water and lemon and mix well.Zest of 1 large lemon, 2 cups Powdered sugar, 3 tablespoon water
- The consistency should be thin but not too thin. You should be able to scoop the glaze with a regular spoon and watch it slowly drizzle of the spoon.
- of the glaze is too thick, just add a touch of water and re mix.= until it becomes the right consistency.
Adding Lemon Glaze to the Ricotta Cookies
- Once the cookies are completely cool, scoop one tablespoon of the glaze and drizzle over the first cookie as evenly as possible.
- Repeat this step for the remaining cookies.
- Allow the glaze to dry then serve immediately.
Fran
I love lemon cookies and these were perfect. Not too much lemon but just right!