From my friend Johneen a recipe she used to make with her mother to celebrate Easter: “These Italian cookies are like little cakes and were a favorite in our house during Easter season. My mother would ice the cookies in different pastel colors so the cookies would look like Easter eggs!”photos coco zordan
The ricotta cheese makes them soft and very similar to scones, but, if kept in the fridge, they will last much longer than their british counterparts.
40 cookies
15 min.
15 min.
1/2 cup butter (1 stick) (soft, at room temperature)
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 pound ricotta
4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
opt. lemon zest grated
4 Tbs. butter (soft but not melted)
1-2 cups powder sugar
2 egg whites
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1 pinch salt
Cream butter and sugar well.
Add eggs, ricotta and vanilla and mix well.
In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking soda and salt. Add dry ingredients to the cheese mixture and mix till smooth.
Drop heaping teaspoons onto cookie sheet.
Bake for 10 to 15 minutes at 350 degrees.
Ice cookies when cookies are completely cooled using Decorators icing.
Decorator Icing
(4 tablespoons shortening, 1 1/2 cups powder sugar, 2 egg whites,
1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla, 1⁄4 teaspoon almond extract, 1 pinch salt)
Beat the egg whites fairly stiff in one bowl. In another bowl, cream shortening, sugar and extracts. Add the egg whites to creamed mixture and beat or cream again. If icing is too thick to spread on cookie add a little milk, if icing is too thin, add a little powdered sugar.
Allow icing to dry before storing cookies. Use wax paper between layers of cookies when storing.
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