• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Easy Italian Recipes
  • Recipes
  • About
menu icon
go to homepage
search icon
Homepage link
  • Recipes
  • About
  • ×

    Home » Recipes » Traditional Italian Dessert Recipes

    Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze

    by kisitalian

    Italian ricotta cookies are light and chewy cookies that are so delicious and really easy to make. These really easy Italian cookies make a great addition to a cup of espresso or coffee and are prefect for anytime of year.

    ricotta cookies on table
    Jump to Recipe

    About this recipe:

    These Italian 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 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 add the lemon into the cookies if you prefer or if you don't want to make the glaze portion of this recipe.

    top view of ricotta cookies
    You can see the cake like texture in the split in half cookie. They are so good!

    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.
    ricotta cookies

    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.

    Here are what the steps look like when making these cookies:

    ricotta cookie ingredients - creaming butter and sugar
    Step 1: Cream butter and sugar.
    creamed butter and sugar in bowl
    Step 2: Now add ricotta and eggs then mix until smooth.
    dry ingredients in bowl
    Step 3: Combine dry ingredients.
    wet and dry ingredients mixed togeether
    Step 4: Now mix dry ingredients with wet ingredients.
    scooping ricotta cookie dough
    Step 5: Scoop out cookies with a small cookie or ice cream scoop then bake.
    ricotta cookies cooling
    Step 6: Let cool completely.
    lemon glaze on ricotta cookies
    Step 7: Add lemon glaze and allow to dry completely.

    Tips:

    1. When making these 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 🙂
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    ricotta cookies with lemon glaze

    More Italian Desserts You May Like:

    • Italian Cornmeal Cookies
    • Buttermilk Panna Cotta
    • Ricotta Pie
    • Italian Rice Pudding
    • Torta Tenerina Italian Chocolate Brownie Cake
    ricotta cookies on table

    Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze

    These easy Italian ricotta cookies are light and cake like and they have the most delicious lemon glaze over the top. These ricotta cookies are the perfect addition to espresso or coffee.
    5 from 1 vote
    Print Recipe Pin Recipe
    Prep Time 15 mins
    Cook Time 10 mins
    cooling and glazing 20 mins
    Total Time 45 mins
    Course Dessert
    Cuisine Italian
    Servings 20 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.

    Notes

     
    If not making the glaze:
     
    If you do not want to make the glaze but still want that lemon flavor, add the lemon zest plus ½ the juice of the lemon to the wet ingredients portion of the recipe.
    Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

    More Traditional Italian Dessert Recipes

    • Italian rice pudding
      Italian Rice Pudding
    • buttermilk panna cotta
      Buttermilk Vanilla Panna Cotta
    • torta tenerina top view
      Italian Brownie Cake (Torta Tenerina)
    • plate of cornmeal cookies
      Italian Sultana Cookies (Cornmeal Cookies)

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

      Leave a Reply Cancel reply

      Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

      Recipe Rating




      This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

    1. Fran

      September 01, 2022 at 6:36 pm

      5 stars
      I love lemon cookies and these were perfect. Not too much lemon but just right!

      Reply

    Primary Sidebar

    Welcome to

    Keeping It Simple Italian.

    We are on a mission to share easy Italian recipes. From easy Italian recipes from Italy to Italian American recipes brought over and adapted by Italian immigrants.

    read more:

    Footer

    ↑ back to top

    Copyright © 2020 KeepingItSimpleItalian