Lemon Ricotta Cookies with Limoncello Glaze: A Glimpse of Spring in a Snow Storm

Lemon cookies in the winter? When you wake up in the morning and see a snow-covered world outside your window, heck, yeah. We're pummeled with snow here in Chicago and this warm-blooded mammal from Southeast Asia is in serious need of something to remind her of the time of year when it's warm enough for her to frolic gleefully in a meadow of daffodils. But then being a non-frolicker, I don't frolic gleefully or otherwise, anyway.


The point is, I needed something light and lemony -- something "springy," as opposed to the usual chocolate this, caramel that which you often find around Christmas time. And these soft Limoncello-glazed lemon ricotta cookies fit the bill.

I have taken the idea of Giada De Laurentiis' Lemon Ricotta cookies and turned it into another booze-infused treat that satisfies the need for something lemony and a treat that is celebratory enough for Christmas. Her original glaze recipe calls for lemon juice, but I thought I should put this Limoncello cream I'd schlepped all the way from Rome to use.

Lemon Ricotta Cookies with Limoncello Glaze
(Makes approximately 2 dozens cookies)
Adapted from Giada De Laurentiis
Downloadable Version

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup (8 ounces) ricotta cheese
Zest of one lemon
2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice
3/4 cup of powdered sugar
2 tablespoons regular or cream Limoncello

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a mixing bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, and egg until fluffy

Add the ricotta and mix well.

Add all-purpose flour, salt, lemon zest, and lemon juice; mix well.

Drop batter by teaspoonfuls on two greased or parchment-lined cookie sheets. You should have about 24 cookies. If beauty and uniformity are important to you, you want to smooth out the tops of the cookie dough mounds with wet fingers so the finished results are perfectly round and not so spiky.

Bake the cookies for 20 minutes.

These cookies are quite soft and fragile, so let the cookies cool a bit before transferring them to a cooling rack. Let the cookies cool completely before glazing them.

Glaze the cooled cookies with the mixture of powdered sugar and Limoncello.

While the glaze is still soft, nonpareils can be sprinkled onto the tops of the cookies for decoration, though a plain glaze looks and tastes just as great.

Let the glaze harden for 2 hours before storing the cookies in an airtight container.