Lemon Ricotta Meltaways

Posted in 12 Days of Cookie Christmas, Desserts | 12 comments

These lemon cook­ies are almost lighter than air! I pre­fer the rolled out method, even though it takes a bit longer. I can’t resist the per­fectly smooth sur­face of the cook­ies. Add to them a tart lemon glaze and some can­died lemon peel, and this cookie just begs to be devoured. Make sure you flip it upside down when you bite to max­i­mize the lemon factor!

 

**The recipe for can­died lemon peel can be found here: http://secretlifeofachefswife.com/anthologie/desserts/candied-lemon-peel                                                                              (plug-in not work­ing today!)

 

 

Lemon Ricotta Meltaways

 

 

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Lemon Ricotta Meltaways

Yield: makes 2 1/2 dozen cookies

Ingre­di­ents

    Cookie:
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter
  • 3/4 cup gran­u­lated sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/2 tea­spoon almond extract
  • 2 table­spoons lemon juice
  • 3/4 cup ricotta cheese (I used orig­i­nal, not low-fat ricotta)
  • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tea­spoon bak­ing powder
  • 1/2 tea­spoon bak­ing soda
  • 1/2 tea­spoon kosher salt (only use 1/4 tsp. if using reg­u­lar salt)
  • zest from 1 lemon
    • Lemon glaze:
  • 1 cup pow­dered sugar
  • 2 table­spoons fresh lemon juice

Instruc­tions

  1. Cream together tha but­ter and gran­u­lated sugar in a mix­ing bowl fit­ted with a whisk. Add the egg and mix well. Add the ricotta cheese, almond extract, and the lemon juice. Blend well.
  2. Mix the dry ingre­di­ents and lemon zest together and and add them to the but­ter mixture.
  3. You can now switch to cookie pad­dles if you want. The dough is soft enough to use the whisk, it’s just harder to clean off.
  4. Mix until incor­po­rated, but don’t over-mix. It makes the dough less light.
  5. At this point, you can either scoop the dough using a medium scoop and bake on a bak­ing sheet pre­pared with parch­ment or a sil­pat liner for 8 min­utes at 350 degrees F., or chill the dough for two hours or so and roll it out to 1/4 inch. Cut 2″ cir­cles from the dough and bake on a bak­ing sheet pre­pared with parch­ment or a sil­pat liner for 7 min­utes at 350 degrees F. The cook­ies will begin to brown on the bot­toms, but not the tops.
  6. Mix together in a bowl and driz­zle on cooled cook­ies. Top with can­died lemon peel for a garnish.
http://secretlifeofachefswife.com/anthologie/desserts/lemon-ricotta-meltaways

 

Lemon Ricotta Meltaways

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12 Comments

  1. Peggy Eddleman / December 2, 2011

    Mmmm. Next to chipo­tle truf­fle, lemon is my one of my very favorite fla­vors. Espe­cially in a cookie.

    Reply
  2. Natalie @ Once Upon a Cutting Board / December 3, 2011

    Mmm I love melt­aways and any lemon desserts so these are right up my alley! I pre­fer the look of the rolled out cook­ies too, they look so dainty and cute!

    Reply
  3. Jenn / December 3, 2011

    These sound yummy and the cookie looks so soft!

    Reply
  4. Rachel @ Bakerita / December 4, 2011

    Mmm, when­ever I make home­made ricotta I’m left with some extra and these seem like the per­fect use for it!
    Can’t wait to try these. Per­fect bright snack to warm up a win­ter day.

    Reply
  5. Jessica / December 5, 2011

    They are beau­ti­ful! Are they as soft as they look?
    I love soft cookies.

    Reply
    • tammy / December 5, 2011

      They are unbe­liev­ably soft. You should try them! :)

      Reply
      • Jessica / December 6, 2011

        Oooh, I will! Thank you for responding!

        Reply
  6. Jessica / January 2, 2012

    Hello again and Happy New Year! I wanted to check back in to say thank you for pub­lish­ing this recipe. I made the cook­ies as a part my hol­i­day bak­ing marathon and they were a huge hit! The only dif­fer­ence I noted from your recipe was how the dough han­dled after refrig­er­at­ing for 2 hours. It was far too sticky to roll out! How­ever, I was able to form nice balls and flat­ten them out to beau­ti­ful disks.

    Thank you! I plan to make these cook­ies again and again.

    Reply
    • tammy / January 2, 2012

      Jessica–So glad you liked these! And it’s also good to know that another method of shap­ing works out so well! Hope your New Year is won­der­ful, and thanks for the comment!

      Reply
  7. Angie / December 22, 2012

    I had been want­ing to try ricotta and liked the low amount of sugar/flour in your recipe. I didnt want lemon for Christ­mas roll­outs, so I added a T of vanilla instead. I held back 1/4 c flour for the rolling out process. I only refrigd for an hour. Extremely easy dough to roll out-very pleased. Very soft cookie-you can roll them thick if you like to sink your teeth into a cookie. I did 350degrees for 14 min­utes on parch­ment paper on alu­minum pan. Very for­giv­ing on time if you dont mind a light brown­ing. How­ever, this is a very floury non-sweet cookie by itself-you def­i­nitely want a sweet icing. I have two lemons because I still want to try the orig­i­nal lemon ver­sion. Thanks for the adventure :-)

    Reply
  8. Candice / January 28, 2013

    I love your recipe for the lemon cook­ies. I use a heart cookie cut­ter and for frost half of the cook­ies in a lemon glaze and half in a choco­late glaze. Per­fect with a nice cut of tea!

    Reply
  9. Kaia / February 23, 2013

    Thanks for this recipe! Had been look­ing for a lemon ricotta pop­py­seed cookie. Just made these, deli­cious! Baked them for 14–15 min­utes until light golden brown under­neath (less time and they tasted underdone/gummy). Icing worked well with the cookie. Added pop­py­seeds to the bat­ter, rolled dough into logs and refrig­er­ated while oven heated up, then cut into slices (about 1cm). Didnt need too much space between cook­ies– they didnt really spread out. Yum! A hit! Thanks again!

    Reply

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