Peppermint Drops

Here's a fun Christmas cookie that will help you use up a few of those old candy canes you have lying around!

I developed this recipe by messing around with the Ricotta Cookies recipe and then changing the glaze on top. Enjoy!

Peppermint Drops

Ingredients for cookie:
2 ¼ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
½ cup butter, softened (1 stick)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 cup ricotta cheese
¾ teaspoon peppermint extract

Ingredients for glaze:
1 ½ cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons butter, softened
¼ teaspoon peppermint extract
2 tablespoons milk
2-3 drops red food color
about 10-12 mini candy canes, crushed (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray cookie sheets with nonstick cooking spray.

In medium-sized bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together. Set aside.

In a mixer, beat butter and sugar until blended. Add egg, ricotta cheese, and peppermint extract, beating until combined. On low speed, add flour mixture slowly.

Use a small cookie scooper to drop the dough onto cookie sheets.

Bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes. Watch cookies carefully. They won’t brown on the top, but they should be lightly browned around the edges. After three minutes, remove to cooling racks. (Warning: bottoms can brown quickly without seeing much browning around the edges.)

Let cookies cool for fifteen minutes before making glaze. While you are waiting, crush the candy canes with a rolling pin and put them in a small bowl.

Stir powdered sugar, butter, peppermint extract, milk, and red food color in a small bowl. Dip top of cookies into glaze and then crushed candy canes. Allow glaze to harden before storing.

Yields: about 60 cookies if you use a small cookie scooper.

Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze

In case you did not attend K-Fest 2010, I made these cookies for my friend Karen’s birthday party—hence, the K on the cookie. As usual, Karen and her hubby Noel threw a great party. Karen told me I have permission to say she was celebrating her 37th birthday. Go, Karen!

The story behind this cookie is a little interesting. It started with a bad trip to the car dealership. Although I had twice been told that my 75,000-mile tune-up would take only 2 to 2 ½ hours, it ended up taking four hours, and I was super late to meeting some friends. On the bright side, I found a recipe for “Mini Ricotta Cakes” in a Family Circle magazine while I was waiting at the dealership. At home, I checked the internet for similar recipes and found the Food Network’s Giada De Laurentiis (I want to be her when I grow up) had a very similar recipe for Lemon Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze.

I decided to take the basic recipe from Family Circle and the lemon glaze from Giada. The result is a melt-in-your-mouth cookie with a mild lemon flavor. Who would have thought a bad trip to the car dealership would end up in something so delicious? It just goes to prove the old saying—when life hands you lemons, make lemon-glazed cookies! ☺

Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze

Ingredients for cookie:
2 ¼ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
½ cup butter, softened (1 stick)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Ingredients for lemon glaze:
1 ¾ cup powdered sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 lemon, zested (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray cookie sheets with nonstick cooking spray.

In medium-sized bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together. Set aside.

In a mixer, beat butter and sugar until blended. Add egg, ricotta, and vanilla, beating until combined. On low speed, add flour mixture slowly.

Use a small cookie scooper to drop the dough onto cookie sheets. (If you don’t have a cookie scooper, you can drop by tablespoonfuls, but you won’t get the nice domed shape.)

Bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes. Watch cookies carefully. They won’t brown on the top, but they should be lightly browned around the edges. After three minutes, remove to cooling racks. (Warning: bottoms can brown quickly without seeing much browning around the edges.)

Let cookies cool for fifteen minutes before making glaze.

Stir powdered sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest in a small bowl. Dip top of cookies into glaze. Allow glaze to harden before storing.

Yields: about 60 cookies if you use a small cookie scooper.

I liked these cookies so much that I also made them again for a summer cookout. This time I used the cake icing to make flowers on the tops of the cookies. I also added one drop of yellow food coloring to the glaze to make it look more lemony. The center of the flower is a sugar pearl, an edible decoration from Wilton. You can find them in craft stores.