How to Make Italian Ricotta Christmas Cookies
Today, I’m sharing a recipe for Italian Ricotta Christmas cookies that my mother made every holiday season. They are made with ricotta cheese and are as light and fluffy as a cloud, and they were always my favorite!
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Making and Decorating Italian Christmas Cookies
When I was growing up, my mother always made these Italian Ricotta Christmas Cookies during holiday time. She would make them with different flavorings, such as anise and almond, and put a little extra decoration on each.
For example, in addition to colored sprinkles, she might put a little lemon peel on top of lemon-flavored cookies. With almond-flavored ones, she’d add little chopped almonds, and with the anise-flavored ones, she’d put tiny crushed anise seeds.
I’m happy to share this Italian Ricotta Christmas Cookies recipe with you, along with a recipe for how to make homemade Ricotta cheese.
More Christmas Recipes
Now that you’ve learned how to make Italian Ricotta Christmas Cookies, try your hand at some other wonderful holiday recipes that are perfect for entertaining.
Homemade Christmas Gifts
Check out the following videos to learn how to make various homemade Christmas gifts.
- How to Make Homemade Extracts – Flavored Extracts – Baking Basics
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After finishing your holiday meal, treat yourself and download my free 36-page Traditional Foods Pantry List. This comprehensive eBook is full of links to recipe videos, helpful articles, and more to help you stock your Four Corners Pantry with traditional foods.
Grind Your Own Flour
If you’d like to make homemade flour for your Italian Ricotta Christmas cookies or other homemade baking, you can use different techniques to grind your whole grain from manual to electric, as I show you in the following video.
Using the Mockmill Electric Grain Mill
When it comes to electric grain mills, after I did A LOT of research, I decided to buy a Mockmill. And am I so happy I did! The Mockmill is a very affordable but beautifully crafted German-made mill that stone grinds grain with settings ranging from 1 to 10—fine to coarse ground grain.
And I have great news! The folks at Mockmill are very kind to offer my viewers and readers a discount on any of the grain mills that they sell.
- Use promo code MARYSNEST and this link for a 5% discount on Mockmill Stone Grain Mill products.
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Italian Ricotta Christmas Cookies
Equipment
- Cooling rack
Ingredients
Italian Ricotta Cookie Ingredients
- 2 cups Powdered sugar
- 2 sticks Butter, unsalted This is 1 cup of butter
- 2 tsp Lemon extract
- 3 large Eggs
- 16 ounce Container of ricotta cheese
- 4 cups All-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 cup Colorful sprinkles
Icing Ingredients
- 4 cups Powdered sugar
- 1 large Lemon, zest and juice
- 1/2 tsp Lemon extract
- 1-2 tbsp Water, as needed
Instructions
Italian Ricotta Cookie Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F
- In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together.
- Add one egg at a time to the butter and sugar mixture, mixing well after each egg addition.
- Add ricotta and lemon extract to the butter and sugar mixture and mix well.
- In a medium-size bowl, whisk flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder together.
- Add flour mixture to the butter and sugar mixture and mix well until a smooth dough is formed. (See video.)
- Using a teaspoon, drop dough onto a parchment-lined or greased baking sheet.
- Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes until only lightly golden. DO NOT over bake.
- Once finished baking, remove cookies from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack.
- Once cooled, drizzle with icing and add sprinkles.
- These cookies will stay fresh, wrapped, on the counter for a few days. They can also be refrigerated, well wrapped, and will stay fresh for up to a week or two. If you want to freeze these cookies, I do not recommend adding the icing. Wrap them well, and they should stay fresh in the freezer for 2-3 months. Allow them to defrost, uncovered at room temperature, and then add the icing.
Icing Instructions
- Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl except the water. Icing should be quite thin so as to be able to drizzle over cookies.
- If the icing is too thick to drizzle, add 1 tablespoon of water to icing in a bowl and mix. If icing is still too thick to drizzle, add additional water, 1 tablespoon at a time until the desired consistency is reached.
Video
Notes
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Favorite Baking Supplies
More Kitchen Supplies with Discount Codes
- Mockmill Grain Grinder (for making homemade flour)
Use my Mockmill affiliate link for a special one-time 5% discount on Mockmill Stone Grain Mill products, including Ancient Grains, like Einkorn, Emmer, and Spelt. (The Mockmill discount will appear when you checkout.)
Use promo code MARYSNST for a one-time 15% off Masontops and Breadsmart products on Amazon.com.
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Learn where I buy my beef bones, electric grain mills, sprouted grains, and more…and get special discounts for Mary’s Nest visitors, including from US Wellness Meats, Mockmill, Masontops, and Cultures for Health.
Recommended Reading
**Disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor, a medical professional, a dietician, or a nutritionist. All content found on the MarysNest.com website, including text, images, videos, eBooks or eGuides, social media, or other formats, were created solely for informational purposes only. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or proper nutritional advice. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have watched in a video or read on this website. Use caution when following the recipe in this video. The creator and publisher of this video and website will not be held responsible for any adverse effects that may arise from the use of this recipe and method or any other recipe and method on this website or corresponding video channel.
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