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food bites

A Recipe for Your Own WHITE CHRISTMAS
By Angela Capelli

When this season rolls around I begin to dream of a beautiful white Christmas. Not the snowy kind though. Let’s face it: I live in South Jersey, and I’ve given up on that a long time ago. Rather I dream of the kind filled with flour and sugar. My family fondly refers to me as the cookie monster; I have been known to stay up half the night baking up to one hundred pounds of cookies for Christmas. But, unlike Cookie Monster, I do share my cookies. And now I’m going to share with you one of my favorite and most requested cookie recipes, ricotta cookies.

This recipe has been in my family ever since I can remember. My best memory is watching my two older brothers devour them before the icing could even dry. There is a bit of an ongoing debate about the recipe. I have modified it over the years combing my mother’s recipe with my husband’s grandmother’s recipe. I hope that you and your family will enjoy them just as much as my brothers did.

I have a few tips for this recipe. These cookies do freeze well, but do not ice them before freezing. Also you can store them without the icing and just decorate them before serving. They keep better without the icing. Enjoy these cookies year round, and change the color of the sprinkles for any occasion or holiday.

RICOTTA COOKIES

1 lb. about 2 cups ricotta (part skim will work)

1 cup unsalted butter (room temp)

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

4 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. vanilla extract

4 cups flour

4 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Sift the dry ingredients, set aside. Beat the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla, beat well. Add the ricotta and then the sifted dry ingredients. Do not over mix. The cookie dough will be thick and sticky. Drop about one tablespoon of the dough onto the cookie sheet. Bake about 10 minutes or until lightly golden and they spring back to the touch. Cool. Glaze cooled cookies and sprinkle with festive colors.

ICING

Powdered sugar about 1 pound

Vanilla extract 1/2 teaspoon

Milk

Wisk powdered sugar and milk together adding the milk slowly until it makes a glaze. Add vanilla.

E-mail Angela Capelli at foodbites@curiousparents.com  with any questions, comments, suggestions or baking tips that you may have.