Ginger & Lemon Ricotta Cookies
Interesting flavors for a cookie
Time: 1 Hour 30 minutes +chilling & cooling
Ingredient Availability: 5/5
Difficulty: 2/5
Another lemon ricotta recipe? Yep, this time its a cookie recipe from Italian American. Apparently, these cookies are cakey and I don’t think I’ve ever made any cookies that weren’t a more traditional cookie texture. Given that these have lemon and ricotta, I have pretty high expectations.
Key Ingredients & Omissions:
In this recipe, I would say that while everything is pretty easy to find, you should make sure that you use whole milk ricotta. Also, while the recipe says you to use vanilla bean paste, you can just use vanilla extract in the same amounts. Oh, and leave your butter out for a couple hours to soften before starting.
Tools:
Stand mixer
Parchment Paper
Cooking Review:
Dry Ingredients: 4 minutes
To start, I went ahead and mixed the dry ingredients in a small bowl.
Mix Batter: 22 minutes
I added the butter and sugar to the stand mixer and creamed it on medium speed with the paddle attachment (speed 6) for about 3 minutes. I stopped it about half way to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Next, I zested the lemon and grated the ginger. This was added and mixed together followed by the vanilla, honey, egg and ricotta. Those ingredients were mixed on low (speed 2). Next, I added the dry ingredients while the mixer continued on low. I scraped down the sides of the bowl and let it finish mixing.
Forming Cookies: 12 minutes
After letting the bowl of batter chill in the refrigerator for 2 and a half hours, I lined a baking sheet with parchment paper and sprayed another with cooking spray, as I ran out of parchment. The forming was somewhat of a challenge. The batter is very sticky, so after scooping the dough with a tablespoon, it wasn’t the easiest to get all of it out. Then, even with oiled hands, the batter would stick to my hands when smoothing it into a ball. So, I decided to use two spoons to scoop the batter onto the baking sheets. I’m pretty sure my cookies are much larger than what the recipe had in mind.
Baking: 15 minutes
I baked the cookies until they were golden brown around the bottom, which was 13 minutes for the sheet with fewer cookies and 15 for the other sheet. Once done, I let the cool completely on the baking sheets.
Making Icing & Icing: 30 minutes
While the cookies cooled, I zested and juiced a lemon and grated some ginger. I mixed the ingredients for icing and once the cookies had completely cooled, I transferred them to a cooling rack over a baking sheet. I poured the icing over the cookies and let the icing set for 15 minutes.
Analysis:
The recipe is right, these cookies are very cake-like. While they are quite soft, there was a nice crisp edge along the bottom. The ginger and lemon flavors come through, but are on the light side and the sweetness level is just about perfect. The icing wasn't completely set after 15 minutes, so it was still kind of soft, so it added a kind of gooey texture, which actually wasn't the worst. Overall, I liked these cookies. There not really my go to type of cookie, but I appreciate their uniqueness. I’m going to give this recipe a 7/10. The batter isn’t very easy to work with, but I think many will find the slight struggle worth it.
P.S.
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