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Ricotta cookies with orange and lemon are at the center of the Italian American Kitchen's dessert menu. Any special event in an Italian family found a large silver tray of cookies on the table or sideboard. Whether a christening, a first communion, a confirmation or a wedding, the cookie tray stood in a place of honor. The silver tray, laid out with white paper doilies, offered an overwhelming variety of visual and gustatory pleasure: sesame cookies, cookies stuffed with figs or dates, lemon cookies, cookies with nuts and powdered sugar, butter cookies, cookies with white icing. My aunts must have spent days and hours on their preparation. I can still see their pudgy little fingers rolling out the dough and shaping the rings. Then came the presentation: a presentation that was nothing less than the Neapolitan art of the baroque applied to the quotidian. They didn’t simply put cookies on a dish. The cookies were staged in a dazzling arrangement. First, there was the silver plate and only a silver plate. The plate was then covered with white paper doilies. On some occasions I remember that the doilies too were made of silver paper. Then the cookies were set out very, very carefully. Varieties were alternated. Gradually, the assortment mounded toward the center. They were beautiful: pink and white and other pale pastel colors. But the presentation was still not ready. Now, it was time for the fully baroque garlands that surrounded the mounded cookies. Scattered over the mounded tray were sprinkles of pastel colored, candy coated almonds called “confetti.” “Confetti” is the Italian word for “confection:” “confetti” are Jordan almonds coated with colored sugar. They are found in white, pastels, silver and gold.
Wedding Cookies
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Then too, there were little sugar candies, also in pastels, that had something of a spiral worm shape: a candy I can no longer find. Floating over the whole tray were little strands of silver tinsel. The overall appearance was not unlike the most magnificent baroque oval shaped ceiling mural that one might find in a grand church of Naples or Rome. What child, or adult, could resist?
The Tray
I found this image online at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/northbayliving/2477026395/ Baroque
Correggio’s,San Giovanni Evangelista, Parma
One of my favorite cookies on that tray was the lemon: a doughnut shaped cookie with a cake like but crisp bite, glazed in lemon sugar. I do not know what that cookie was called and I am still researching how to recreate it. In the process of discovery, I have been experimenting with various recipes. The recipe that follows here is a cross between what I have found about Italian lemon cookies and a cup of left over ricotta from making lasagna. These cookies are very cake-like so they satisfy the need for a sweet cake, but they are also cookies that satisfy the “pop it in your mouth” urge. I use real lemon juice and orange juice for these cookies, but you can also use an extract.
A few very important notes. Preheat the oven to 400. Use an ice-cream scoop to assure consistent size. Do not overcrowd each cookie pan. Bake only one tray at a time. |
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Equipment
Electric mixer Cookie trays Spatula |
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Butter, Ricotta and Sugar
Add the ricotta, butter and sugar and cream together with an electric mixer.
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Eggs
Add the eggs and beat.
Scrape down the bowl with the spatula. |
Flour, Salt and Powder
Add all the dry ingredients, the flour, the salt and the baking powder.
Do not over mix. Mix just enough to blend. |
Layout
Use an ice cream scooper to form the cookie balls.
Set them om a cookie sheet Heat the oven to 400. Bake for about 14 minutes. One sheet at a time. |
Cool
Cool the cookies on a rack,
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Glaze
Put the powdered sugar into a bowl. Very, very gradually drops of orange or lemon juice until you make a glaze paste.
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Glaze the cookies
Drizzle the orange or lemon glaze over the cookies.
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Ready to serve
