Citrus Almond Ricotta Nibbles

A while back I made a large batch of ricotta cheese for usage in a few Indian dishes and ended up with quite a bit leftover.  I made ricotta cheese cake before but this time I wanted something small to nibble on and found a recipe which clicked with me right away.  As usual, I added a few changes and am happy with how it turned out.  These cookies are very moist (for cookies), fragrant with orange flavour and simply delicious. They freeze well so are a good candidate for unexpected guests. I made large batches, froze some, shared some, and got rave comments; even from my Mom who actually requested some more. A few days ago Sue asked for the recipe so it is time to post it.  Here it is, Sue.  Enjoy!

citrus ricotta cheese almond cookies

CITRUS ALMOND RICOTTA NIBBLES

(Adapted from Home Cooking In Montana)
Yields about 20-25 cookies of 2.5-inch size.

Dry Ingredients:

145 g (1 Cup plus 2 Tablespoons) all-purpose flour
50 g (1/2 Cup) ground almond
1/2  teaspoon baking powder
1/2  teaspoon salt

Wet Ingredients:

56 g (4 Tablespoons)  unsalted butter, softened
150 g  (¾ Cup)  sugar
50 g (1) egg
170 g (1 Cup) whole milk ricotta cheese
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 Tablespoon orange zest
30 g (1/2 Cup) unsweetened shredded coconut (optional, but highly recommended)

Topping:

45-50 g dark chocolate, broken into small pieces

How I do it:

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees F,  line a large baking sheets with parchment paper.Mix the dry ingredients together thoroughly with a whisk (you can use a folk) and set aside.

Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 3 to 4 minutes.

Beat in the egg until well incorporated, mix in the ricotta cheese, and the rest of the wet ingredients until combine.  Fold in the shredded coconut at the end just to combine.

Use a tablespoon scoop the wet thick batter out on the prepared baking sheets, about 2 inches apart.

Bake for 12-15 minutes until the edges get slightly colored, rotating the sheet 180 degrees half  way.

Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes.  Remove then from the parchment onto the cooling rack ( I use  a thin metal spatula.)



up a notch with dark chocolate drizzle

While waiting for the cookies to cool make chocolate icing:

Put the chocolate in a small bowl and melt it in the microwave at low heat until it is smoothly melted, about 3-4 minutes.

Pour the melted chocolate into a Ziploc bag, push out air and seal it.

Cut the bag’s one bottom corner to make a tiny hole about 1-2 millimeters and drizzle the chocolate on the cool cookies in different patterns. It’s fun to do this drizzling.

Eat some now; let the topping set completely before storing cookies in an air tight container. I used wax paper to separate the cookies.

I found this TJS 72% chocolate.  It comes conveniently  in a package of 3 small bars; one bar (47 g) is enough for this recipe if you drizzle like I do here.  It’s inexpensive and tastes great with these cookies.