These are one of my Granny's favorites, as she's the one who would make them every year. They soft, fluffy, and delightfully tart from all the lemon. These are easily one of the best Christmas Cookies of all time.
Recipe - Makes roughly 3 dozen
2 ½ cup flour
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 stick unsalted butter
15oz whole milk ricotta
3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 lemon zest
Glaze
1 ½ cup powdered sugar
3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
I do recommend making these with a stand mixer, but they could easily be made by hand as well (it'll just take a little more work). Set your oven to 375f and we can work on the dough. Start by creaming 2 cups of sugar with 1 stick of unsalted butter. This needs at least 5 minutes (up to 10) for the butter and sugar to be completely homogenous. Give it the time it needs, and scrape the sides down every couple of minutes. While the mixer runs, add your 2 eggs in, one at a time. This can now sit while we work on the lemons.
We need the zest and juice of one whole lemon, so go ahead and microplane off the yellow rind. If you don't have one, peel off the lemon rind, being cautious not to get too much bitter pith. Then finely mince that with your knife, and you’ll have a beautiful zest ready to impart some nice brightness to the cookie. Cut your lemon in half then juice it into the zest. You need around 3 tbsp of juice. Use your hand or a strainer to keep out any unwanted seeds.
Back at the dough, add in a full 15oz container of whole milk ricotta. This creates a wonderfully fluffy and tangy flavor in the finished cookie. Add your juice and zest to the mix along with 2 and a half cups of flour, 1 tsp baking powder, and 1 tsp kosher salt.
Mix that gently until everything has come together to form a nice smoothish batter. I like to use a wooden spoon to give it one final mix. Each cookie is between 1-2 tbsp, so I like using this 1.5 tbsp scoop to dose each one. Place these on a parchment lined baking sheet with enough room to spread and bake them for roughly 15 minutes at 375f. They’re done when a toothpick comes out clean from the cookies. Place these on a wire rack to cool.
While they cool, we can create the tart lemony glaze needed to really push these over the edge. Mix 1.5 cups of powdered sugar with lemon juice from one large lemon. Spoon a little icing on each one and let that cool.
These cookies are outstanding, mainly because they stay moist for days upon days. They have a ton of deliciously lemon flavor matched by the outsandingly tender cookie.
Cheers!
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