Aunt Tana's Riccota Cookies

This little cookie is a family favorite over the Easter Holidays.  It's a great project for little ones.  We have used them dressed up for a wedding and brightly colored for a family reunion.

Aunt Tana's Riccota Cookies

Ingredients:

For the Cookie

2 cups sugar

½ pound butter

3 eggs

Zest of a lemon

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 pound ricotta, full

2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the Glaze

1 pound powder sugar, sifted

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ cup water or milk - you may need more

Method:

For the Cookie

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease your cookie sheets.

2. Mix together the ricotta and vanilla in one bowl, and set it aside.  In a second bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda.  Set this aside as well.

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add the three eggs, one at a time along with the lemon zest beating until incorporated.

4. Turn down the speed of your mixer and add the ricotta and vanilla mixture alternatively with the dry ingredients.  Don't over mix.

5. Place (about 2 tablespoons for each cookie) onto the baking dish about two inches apart on your cookie sheet. They are going to be like soft little mounds.

6. Bake in the middle of your preheated oven for about ten minutes or until they have browned slightly on the bottom of the cookie.  The top of these cookies should be pale and the texture soft - like a little cake.

7. Take the cookies out of the oven and let them rest for a minute then, place them onto a rack to cool.

For the Glaze

1. Mix together in a bowl all the ingredients. You want this glaze to run off the spoon - it's going to cling somewhat to the cookie, but ultimately you want the glaze to drizzle down the sides. Add liquid as needed.

2. Divide the glaze into several bowls - however many colors you are going to use, and add, a drop to start, of each food color into its own bowl of glaze.  Stir and keep adding until you get the perfect colors.  Now comes the fun part.  Lay some parchment or wax paper down on your table.  Place a rack of cookies over this paper.  Decorate the cookies with a drizzle colored glaze.  The glaze will run down the cookies and drip onto the paper.  Keep the cookies on the racks until they have dried, about 2 hours.  Afterwards, cleanup will be as easy as throwing away the paper.

My Aunt Tana would add flaked coconut to the wet glaze, and we sometimes use sanding sugar to add a little sparkle. Get creative - pretty soon you will have these pretty cookies all dolled up and ready to be devoured by children young and old.  Just let the glaze dry before storing the cookies in an air tight container.  Use wax paper or parchment between the layers if you are stacking them.  Refrigerating causes the glaze to weep, so best eaten within 3 days.