Lemon Ricotta Cookies

The inspiration for these cookies came from a Giada De Laurentis recipe. I’ve made my own take on it. No glaze necessary.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups almond flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 stick butter, softened
• 2 cups Splenda (or sugar)
• 3 eggs
• 1 (15-ounce) container whole milk ricotta cheese
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 lemons, zested

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Combine the almond flour, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. Pull out the eggs and have them ready with the other ingredients. Zest your lemon.

Squeeze the juice out of the lemon. Measure it out. You need 3 tablespoons. Depending on your lemon, you might need another one to get all the juice you need. Get out the ricotta and the baking powder.

Cream together the butter and Splenda with a hand mixer (or a Ninja, as I did!). Add the eggs. When that mixture is well-blended, add the ricotta cheese, and blend well. Then add the lemon juice and just half of the zest. (Reserve the rest of the zest for garnish.) In your large bowl, add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.

Mix well, then use a medium-sized scoop to scoop out the lemon cookie batter onto the cookie sheet. You may want to slightly flatten each ball so they are not quite so rounded. They will bake better.

Set your timer for 12 minutes. Check the cookies for doneness. They should start to brown just a tad at the edges. Put them back in if they aren’t done yet, and keep checking every minute until they get with the program! Allow them to cool.

I made some into bite sized balls. When you do this, roll them up so the “done” portion is on the inside of the ball. Top with a little lemon zest.