My Italian Ricotta Cookies are a soft, cloud-like cookie that have a light texture and moist from the lovely cheese they are baked with. We make these around the holidays but you can make them any time of the year. I flavored my with fresh lemon zest and lemon juice in the glaze to make them lemon ricotta cookies, but you can make them in a variety of ways to make them all your own. Save my recipe now so you can find it each season you are in the mood for cookies.
My grandma passed away this summer (2025) and this Christmas season is my first without her. As we approach our first Christmas without her, really a matriarch for our family, I am constantly reminded of how she loved Italian cookies for Christmas. She loved them anytime but Christmas would often be the season for baking them or visiting the Italian bakery to buy them.
Often her sister (my great aunt) would be the one to big a box of them to the Christmas dessert spread. Delicate and sweet cookies, mini cannoli and mini eclairs would grace the table on a tiered tray and be munched on for the rest of the evening filled with coffee and chatter and shenanigans of the children running through the house. This season I decided to make Italian Ricotta cookies as a nod to her memory and have spent the last week enjoying them with my coffee, my daughter’s chatter and my son’s shenanigans.
I will warn you though, my lemon ricotta cookies become quite addictive. It is tough to eat just one cookie. They are so good you won’t be able to resist grabbing two or maybe three more.
Working with Ricotta
I love using ricotta in baking recipes because it always keeps baked goods nice and moist. As an American, I do have to admit I sometimes find traditional European cookies to be drier (I know they are often supposed to be dunked in tea and coffee) and so working on baked items with ricotta cheese is often a joy. I find the ricotta gives everything a cloud-like, soft texture and that included my Italian lemon ricotta cookies. This is one of the easier recipes I have made with ricotta (cannoli filling makes me crazy) and I hope it feels easy to you too.
Cookie Flavorings
As I mentioned, I flavored my Italian Ricotta Cookies with lemon and made them Italian Lemon Ricotta cookies. However, you can flavor them in a variety of ways.
Do you prefer orange? Swap out the lemon zest and juice in the recipe below for 1/2 an orange zest in the cookie and in the glaze use 1 tbsp of fresh squeezed orange juice or 1/2 tsp orange extract.
Do you like almond? Remove the lemon zest and juice and use 1/2 tsp almond extract in the cookie. I would leave the glaze plain if you decide to do this. Or if you want to leave the flavoring out of the cookie use 1/4 tsp almond extract in the glaze.
Do you like anise? Flavor the cookie with 1/4 – 1/2 tsp of anise extract and leave the glaze plain or top it with chopped walnuts or pecans.
Mixing the dough
Mixing the dough for the Italian lemon ricotta cookies is easy. It starts in a very familiar way by creaming together the butter and sugar. In this case, the zest is also added to the mix too. Next the eggs and vanilla extract are added in. If you decide to add additional extracts those go in now too. Then ricotta is mixed in. Finally, the flour mixture (flour, salt and baking powder) is added in bit by bit.
Chilling time
Once the dough is made for the lemon Italian ricotta cookies, the dough needs to chill. I usually scrape down the edges, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and then place it in the refrigerator. It needs about two hours in there. the dough can be rather sticking so placing it in the refrigerator will help.
Rolling out the the Italian Ricotta Cookies
When it is time to bake the cookies, I will first flour my hands. Since the dough is sticky it helps. However, I flour them very lightly because I do not want to add a lot of excess flour to the dough. Next I use a spoon to scoop out the dough and then roll it between my palms. Each of my balls of cookie dough is about 1 1/2 inches wide. The recipe makes about 40 cookies. However, if you decided to make your dough balls only an inch wide, you might be able to get more.
Each little ball of ricotta cookie dough is placed on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Use white parchment paper if you have it or a silicone baking mat like this {HERE}. The bottoms of the cookies tend to brown easily. My photo of the bottom of the cookie is normal color for it and will not impact taste. But white parchment paper will help this a little more too.
Tips for Success
- Use the lightest colored baking sheet you have for baking the Italian Ricotta Cookies.
- If you wan to keep the cookie dough balls very even you can use a cookie scoop like this {HERE}.
- The dough will be sticky, even after it is in the refrigerator. You can lightly flour your hands but try not to add too much more flour to the cookie dough itself or it might change the texture.
- The bottoms of the Italian Ricotta Cookies tend to brown easily. Use white parchment paper when making them and pay close attention to the time. I know I used brown parchment paper here in the photos but after making these several times I do find the white parchment paper to be better.
- Make sure to use a very thin spatula for removing the cookies from the cookie sheet or carefully pull the entire piece of parchment paper off the cookie sheet (with the cookies still on them) to cool. Removing them will help to keep the bottoms lighter but can be a challenge.
Saving the cookies
Once cooled and set, the Italian ricotta cookies will keep in an airtight container on the counter for about 5 days. If you put them in the refrigerator in an air tight container then they will keep for about a week or so. You can also make the dough for the ricotta cookies ahead and keep it covered in the refrigerator for about 48 hours.
Looking for more cookie recipes?
If you love a good cookie recipe, try these too.
- The Best Pizzelle recipe {HERE}
- Classic Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies {HERE}
- Cocoa Cookies recipe {HERE}
- Cut Out Sugar Cookies {HERE}
- Soft Gingerbread Cookies {HERE}
- Cranberry Shortbread Cookies {HERE}
- Chocolate Covered Peanut Clusters {HERE}
- Swirl Peppermint Bark {HERE}
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Thank you so much for stopping by, friends. I hope you come back again. You can find the full instructions for my Italian Ricotta Cookies recipe below. Happy eating.
Italian Lemon Ricotta Cookies
Equipment
- Mixing bowls
- Whisk/Sifter
- Electric stand mixer
- Silicone spatula
- Metal spatula
- Baking sheet - preferably a light color
- White parchment paper
Ingredients
Ingredients for the cookies
- 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour (495g)
- 1/2 tsp fine salt
- 2 1/2 tps baking powder
- 1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature (226g)
- 1 3/4 cup granulated sugar (350g)
- Zest from one lemon (If you want to flavor these with almond, anise or orange, leave this out and follow recommendations in the blog post.)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 15 oz whole milk/fresh ricotta (About 1 1/2 cups)
Ingredients for the glaze
- 3 cups confectioners sugar
- 1 tbsp melted unsalted butter
- 4-5 tbsp milk (The less milk you add the thicker the glaze will be.)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp lemon juice (If you want to flavor these differently asa noted in the post above, leave this out.)
Instructions
Instructions for the Italian Ricotta Cookies
- In mixing bowl, whisk or sift together the flour, salt and baking powder until it is well combined. Then set the bowl aside.
- Using an electric stand mixer with the paddle attachment, whip the butter, sugar and lemon zest (if you are flavoring for lemon) together until is a fluffy. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
- Next add in the eggs one at a time and the vanilla extract and mix on medium until combined. If you are adding other extracts, add them now.
- Add in the ricotta and mix slowly until well combined.
- Next add the flour little by little. I usually add it in by thirds. When all the flour has been incorporated, scrape down the sides of the bowl, cover it with plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- When the chill time is over, scoop the dough out in small sections and roll it into 1-1 1/2 inch balls. The dough will be slightly sticky so you can lightly flour your hands if you need to. Place each ball of dough onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Make sure to use a light colored baking sheet and white parchment paper.
- Bake the Italian Lemon Ricotta Cookies for 13-14 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet for a minute or two and then immediately use a thin metal spatula to move the cookies to a cooking rack. If the cookies are too soft to be picked up by the spatula, I sometimes carefully take the corner of the parchment paper, tilt the cookie sheet and pull it cookies/parchment and all onto the counter. Let them cool for 1 hour.
- Then mix together the glaze icing ingredients. The icing should be nice and thick. Spoon a spoonful over each cookie on parchment paper and allow it to drip down on the sides. Immediately sprinkle on sprinkles of your choice and allow the glaze to set at room temperature.
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