Italian Ricotta Cookies

Italian ricotta cookies are a classic cookie favorite! This soft and moist ricotta cookie recipe is flavored with almond extract and lemon juice and zest for a bright flavor, and topped with a simple almond-flavored glaze.

These Italian ricotta cookies have been a long time in the making!

Like so many Italian cookies, they're a delicacy I happily ate throughout my childhood. However each time I made them as an adult I felt that they weren't quite as I remembered them.

Too flat and moist, too lemon-y, not lemon-y enough...let's just say the number of ricotta cookie batches I've made this year falls between five and ten.

These, though? Ricotta cookie perfection.

What are Ricotta Cookies?

If you're not too familiar with baking with ricotta, don't be hesitant. It's a staple in savory pasta dishes like lasagna and baked ziti with meatballs, but is just as versatile in sweet-leaning recipes - see fluffy ricotta pancakes and the filling of cannoli icebox cake.

Ricotta adds moisture and a slightly spongy and cake-like quality to cookies. Frequently paired in recipes with citrus flavors (like lemon ricotta muffins), it does not make baked goods taste like cheese at all.

Traditionally glazed and topped with nonpareil sprinkles, Italian ricotta cookies are often made around the Christmas and Easter holidays.

Why This Recipe Works

• Some ricotta cookies feature lemon flavoring, while others go with almond. This recipe doesn't make you choose and instead uses a delicious balance of lemon juice, zest, and almond extract. All these flavors mesh REALLY well.
• Worried about ricotta cookies that fall flat? This recipe builds in plenty of chill time and features tips and tricks to ensure they rise up nicely, every time. No flat, pancake-like cookies here.

Recipe Ingredients

• Ricotta cheese: I prefer whole milk ricotta for these lemon ricotta cookies. While you could use part-skim and the recipe would work, the extra fat from the whole milk variety adds a more rich feel to these cookies that is extra enjoyable in a dessert.
• Butter: Butter is properly softened when you can press the stick with gentle pressure and your finger leaves a small indent. Take the butter out of the fridge an hour or two before you plan to begin baking, placing it near a running appliance like a dishwasher, oven, or coffee pot to speed the process up.
• Flour: Be sure to measure flour using the "spoon-and-level" method, detailed in the recipe card. This prevents excess flour from inadvertently making its way into the recipe, which can lead to drier baked goods.
• Lemon juice/zest: It's easier to zest the lemon first (so you have something solid to hold onto), and then juice it.
• Almond extract: The almond flavoring is not overwhelming, but if you know you're not a fan of it you can replace the almond extract in the dough and glaze with equal amounts of vanilla extract.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Cream together the softened butter and sugar. This means using the paddle attachment on a stand mixer (or just the regular beaters on a hand mixer) and mixing it on medium to medium-high speed for two minutes, stopping to scrape down the sides as needed. Look for the mixture to have lightened in color a bit and become creamy and fluffed up.
2. Mix in the egg until combined.

3. Add the ricotta, lemon juice and zest, and almond and vanilla extracts and mix well until everything is evenly combined.
4. Add your dry ingredients to a separate mixing bowl: flour, baking powder, and salt.

5. Add the dry ingredients to the bowl of wet ingredients in three increments, mixing each in until just combined.
6. Once the dough is all mixed together, you'll notice that the consistency is thick. Very thick! Look for it to be moist but not too wet or too sticky. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill for at least 8 hours, but longer (like overnight) works, too.

7. Once thoroughly chilled, form about one-and-a-half tablespoons of dough into a ball and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
8. Bake at 350°F/177°C for around 15 minutes, or until the tops have set and the bottoms are just turning golden- brown. Let them cool for 15 minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely before glazing.

Ricotta Cookie Glaze

9. Whisk together the glaze ingredients in a bowl until smooth: confectioners' sugar, milk, and almond extract. Spoon glaze over top of the cookies and decorate with nonpareils.

While some ricotta cookie varieties carry on the citrus theme with a lemon-flavored glaze, I prefer adding a simple almond glaze to these lemon ricotta cookies. Reason being that lemon and almond flavors complement one another in a nice balance, and while I love lemon-flavored desserts, I've found there is such a thing as overdoing it with the lemon.

Though you can always add more or less milk to get a thicker or thinner glaze, as written three tablespoons of milk result in a glaze that can be spooned over top of the cookies and will drip down the sides with just a little nudge from the spoon.

Recipe Tips and Tricks

• Since chilled dough is best, keep the remaining dough in the refrigerator if you're baking ricotta cookies in multiple batches. Don't scoop out cookies and leave them out at room temperature while another batch or batches bake as you'll risk them warming up too much.
• On that note, use a fresh cookie sheet to bake each batch. Used ones will be too warm and can risk spreading.
• This Italian ricotta cookie recipe can be doubled to use a full 15-ounce container of ricotta cheese. However as written with half of a container this recipe yields about thirty-four cookies, which I find to be more than enough for many occasions.
• I like to repurpose the used parchment paper by placing it underneath the wire racks while glazing the cookies. Easier clean up that way!
• Rainbow nonpareils are a classic decoration fit for any time of year, but the mix of red/green/white nonpareils are a fun way to switch it up at Christmastime.

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P.S. If you're thinking that these cookies look familiar...well, you're not wrong. These look very, very similar to Italian anise cookies, a beloved family recipe of mine and a reader favorite, as well. Anginetti cookies, too! With how often I make all three of these cookies, I think I'll forever be finding tiny nonpareils in all the little crevices in my kitchen.