Prep Time – 90 minutes
Bake Time – 15 minutes
Ingredients
- 4 sticks salted butter
- 1 ¾ cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- 15 ounces (or 1 ¾ cups) ricotta
- 2 tbsp vanilla extract
- 4 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
Directions
- First soften butter in the microwave until almost melted in a bowl, then pour vanilla into the butter and mix together.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and pour into the bowl with vanilla and butter.
- In a large bowl, mix together all dry ingredients
- Once mixed well, add liquid ingredients and ricotta to dry ingredients mixing all ingredients together (this is easiest to do using a rubber spatula). Once the ingredients are mixed together, cover the bowl and place into the refrigerator for 1 hour, allowing the dough to chill.
Baking
- Use 2 large baking sheets, the recipe generally makes 50 cookies so you’ll likely have to bake these in batches.
- Line the baking sheet with parchment paper and use an ice cream scooper to scoop dough out of the bowl. Roll dough into balls approx 1” in diameter and place in the oven for 15 minutes at 350 degrees F.
- When cookies come out of the oven, they should be white and golden on top.
- Let cookies rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes as they are very soft when they come out of the oven. After 5 minutes, place cookies on another sheet and continue baking the rest of cookies until the dough is gone.
Wait! You’re not done yet!
Icing
- 1 cup confectioners sugar
- 3 Tbsp milk
- shaved lemon rinds from lemon (optional)
- squeeze in half of lemon (optional)
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp anise extract
Mix all these ingredients together then dip the top of each cookie into icing, making it look like an ice cap. If you want to go an extra step (and I always do), you can even add on some holiday sprinkles on top.
Tip:
While one batch of cookies are baking, place dough back in the refrigerator so it doesn’t get too soft. This dough is very sticky and can get messy, but it’s well worth it!
Check out the video below: