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Soft and cake-like Lemon Ricotta Cookies made with a quick lemon infused sugar. These fragrantly bright Italian cookies are dipped in a lemon glaze for a delightful all around citrus scent.
They’re incredibly easy to make and you can top them with sprinkles of your choice to suit just about any holiday or other special occasion.
These cookies made with ricotta are extremely popular in Italian households. Especially around the holidays with each family having their own unique way of decorating these lemon flavoured cookies.
They’re inspired by Canadian Living Magazine’s Ricotta Cookies from a holiday issue. I’ve made a few switch ups which will definitely appeal to all lemon lovers.
To achieve an all around citrus taste in the cookie dough, I added lemon zest and made a quick lemon sugar by pulsing together the lemon zest with the granulated sugar in my mini food processor. It’s the same technique I use when baking batches of Ciambelle Cookies as well!
Alternately, if you don’t have a food processor you can skip this step. And simply beat together the butter and sugar with the lemon zest.
I also omitted the baking soda altogether and increased the baking powder from 1/4 teaspoon to a full teaspoon. This yielded a plumper cookie which did not spread out much and does not flatten out. They resembled these perfect little round soft and fluffy pillows.
Also for uniformly round cookies I used a 1 1/2 inch round cookie scoop but you can just as easily measure the dough out with a rounded tablespoon.
I opted out of the cream cheese icing and decided to make a luscious lemon glaze.
They’re extremely soft to the bite, much more so than my Tarallucci al Limone. And they also have a very cake-like texture full of lemon flavour which are sure to appeal to all you die hard cookie fans!
How To Make Lemon Ricotta Cookies
1. Pulse together the lemon zest and sugar together in a food processor for about 1 minute. This technique infuses the sugar granules with the citrus scent.
2. Place the lemon sugar and the softened butter in a large mixing bowl.
3. With an electric mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until fluffy.
4. Add in the egg, ricotta cheese and vanilla extract
4. Beat together until well combined.
5. Add in the sifted dry ingredients consisting of flour, salt and baking powder. And stir the dry ingredients into the ricotta mixture.
6. Scoop out approximately 1 tablespoon of cookie dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet while spacing the cookies 2 inches apart. (use a 1.5 inch small scoop or a tablespoon)
7. Bake in a preheated oven for about 12 to 14 minutes. Remove from the oven when pale yellow in colour with golden bottoms. Then simply transfer the cookies to a wire rack and allow to cool completely before glazing.
Lemon Glaze For Cookies
This is a simple dairy free lemon glaze consisting of powdered sugar, also known as icing or confectioner’s sugar. And with both the juice and zest of a lemon.
You may need an extra lemon for juicing if your first one does not give out enough juice.
Simply add the powdered sugar, juice and zest in a medium bowl. Use a whisk to thoroughly combine the ingredients until smooth in appearance with no lumps.
You can customize the thickness of the lemon icing or glaze to your taste. Adding less lemon juice to the icing sugar will result in a thicker glaze. Or, if you prefer a thinner glaze try adding a little more lemon juice.
Do keep in mind though that these cookies absorb quite a bit of the icing, especially a day after. So if you want that white glazed appearance make sure the icing is not overly thin.
Can You Freeze Lemon Ricotta Cookies?
I had full intentions to test out whether these ricotta cookies would freeze well because I’m all for baking ahead during the holidays.
However, they lasted 1 full day in my freezer because greedy hands quickly devoured the cookies! They’re that delicious!
Here is what I recommend!
- If baking and freezing ahead do freeze the cookies without the lemon glaze.
- Thaw and then glaze the cookies the same day you plan to serve them for best appearance.
How to store Italian Ricotta Cookies
- Store the cookies in an air tight container and keep in a cool dark place.
- They’ll be at their freshest for about 5 days
- Or freeze unglazed cookies and then defrost and glaze them on the day you plan to serve them.
Bake them today and tag @marisasitaliankitchen on Instagram so I can see your creation!
This recipe was originally posted Nov 13, 2017 and republished May 14, 2021 with updated content and photos.
Lemon Ricotta Cookies
Ingredients
For The Cookie Dough
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- zest from 1 lemon
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter (softened)
- 1 large egg
- 8 ounces whole milk ricotta cheese
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt (I used fine sea salt)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- sprinkles or nonpareils for decorating
For The Lemon Glaze
- 2 1/2 cups icing sugar
- zest from 1 lemon
- 4 to 5 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Line 3 cookies sheets with parchment paper as this will make for easy release of the cookies and set aside.
- Pulse the granulated sugar with the lemon zest in a food processor for about 1 minute so as to infuse the sugar with the lemon scent.
- Place the lemon sugar and the softened butter in a large bowl and beat until fluffy.
- Beat in the egg, ricotta cheese and the vanilla until well combined.
- In a medium sized bowl whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder and stir this into the ricotta mixture.
- Using a small cookie scoop of about 1 1/2 inch in size, scoop out the dough onto the prepared baking sheet, spacing them about 2 inches apart so that they have room to expand. Or simply measure out a heaping tablespoon if you don't have a cookie scoop.
- Bake in the preheated oven for about 12 to 14 minutes or until the bottoms are golden in color.
- Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely and in the meantime prepare the lemon glaze.
- FOR THE LEMON GLAZE
- Place the icing sugar and lemon zest in a medium sized bowl and whisk in the lemon juice 1 tablespoon at a time, until a desired consistency is achieved.
- Dunk the top of the ricotta cookies into the lemon glaze and place on a wire rack with a tray underneath to catch any drippings.
- Sprinkle with nonpareils of your choice and then allow the lemon glaze to set before serving.
Nutrition
Those are absolutely gorgeous cookies, Marissa! The gold sprinkles make them so elegant and festive.
Thanks Kathryn, they make quite an entrance….everyone loves them?
Beautiful! And you know I love anything with ricotta. I totally agree with your swapping out the cream cheese icing for a simple lemon glaze. Thanks for sharing!
I too adore anything with ricotta! My go to after school snack was ricotta and Nutella sandwich…..and that lemon glaze keeps the cookies so moist. One day I promise to try your cannoli! Thanks so much?
With cookie planning in the making soon, these will definitely be added to my list. Marisa, your photos are absolutely stunning!
Thanks Bella, these will also be making a reappearance at my house for Christmas this year…they’re too delicious to delicious to pass up! Do let me know how it goes?
Beautiful cheese and lemon in a cookie form – can’t get any better than that! No wonder they disappeared so quickly!
Thanks Ronit, one can never go wrong with a ricotta and lemon combo and as a bonus they’re so easy to make?
These cookies look gorgeous and sound so delicious, lemony desserts are my favourite!
Mine too Fida…..there’s just something about lemon desserts! They’re a little bit of sunshine in every bite! Thanks so much for dropping by and your lovely comment?
Ricotta and lemons, two of my favorite foods combined into one! They look perfect! Thanks for sharing Marisa ♥♥♥
You can never go wrong with ricotta and lemon…there is a little burst of sunshine in every bite and so irresistible! Thanks Maria?
Wowza, do these look amazing or what!? So light and perfectly sweet- definitely need to try!
They are indeed light Karly and a must if you love a lemon and ricotta combo! They can also be adapted for any holiday celebration…enjoy!?
YESSSSS omg I need to make these. Would be a perfect addition to my Christmas baking this year!
Nikki
http://www.nikkisplate.com
Hi Nikki, I’m sure your friends and family will absolutely love them and perfect for the holidays…enjoy and thanks for dropping by!
Lemon and ricotta are a match made in heaven, and these beautiful cookies are definitely their lovechild~! They’re SO going on my holiday-cookie-baking-list 🙂 thanks for the recipe~
They will make a perfect addition to your holiday cookie platter and you can dress them up any which way you like Nahdala! I’m sure you’ll them…enjoy !
These look like delightful little dessert morsels. I have a feeling that treats like these would not last long on my counters.
Yes, they actually do disappear rather quickly! Doubling the recipe might just be in order!? Hope you get to try them and thank-you for dropping by!
What is icing sugar?
Hi Julie, so icing sugar is the same as powdered sugar and (or) confectioners sugar. Different names but same thing!
So pretty!!! I would make them look ugly all over my mouth while cramming them in…lol! 😉
Lol….that’s too funny and I’m sure you’d still look elegant while doing so?
Fantastico! I love lemon cookies and these look great!
There’s just something about lemon cookies….a little bit of sunshine in every bite! Grazie Stella!
Have you been able to try freezing them? How did they turn out?
Corbin I’ve only frozen them for a day which is not long enough to give an informed opinion! However a friend and colleague has assured me that she freezes them with no issue at all. I hope this helps and feel free to come back and chime in if you do bake and freeze them. I would love to hear from you on how they turn out. Thanks for commenting!
Hello there, I gotta say these are the best lemon cookie cake ever. I made them all through the holidays and everyone enjoyed them. This recipe is the best . You can’t even mess this up that’s how easy it was to make them. I’ve been baking since I was 12 and now I’m 56 years old and these are the best by far. No one can believe how great they tasted . Great job on this recipe.
Thanks so much and I’m happy to hear you love them as much as I do! They’re truly a cinch to make and a must for lemon lovers! Thanks for commenting.
❤️❤️❤️ These cookies were a breeze to make and delightful to eat. So light. Have to control myself or I will eat them all! My hubby loved them too. Definitely on my list of favorites. Even passed along the recipe to my cousin.
I’m so happy you love these cookies as much as I do Jeannie. They’re definitely a keeper and thanks so much for commenting.
These are simply the BEST cookies ever. Can’t bake them often enough according to my family and friends. Thank you so much for posting all your wonderful recipes and especially this one!
Hi Marisa! You’re very welcome and I’m so happy you enjoyed them. My family adores these as well.
Hi can u put icing powder sugar instead of the glace
Tina, yes you can but you’ll have less of a lemon kick.
Could I make the dough ahead of time and freeze the cookie dough balls at that time? I would bake and ice them later. Would that approach present any challenges?
Margaret, I’ve never tried freezing the ricotta cookie dough but don’t see why not. Let me know how it goes if you give it a try.