By JENNIFER MATHEWS
The Creamy Ingredient Giada De Laurentiis Includes In Her Lemon Cookies
Chef Giada De Laurentiis uses ricotta cheese in her lemon cookies to make them rich, soft, and cakey without imparting any flavor. She also dips the cookies in a tart lemon glaze.
Lemon juice and zest appear in both her cookies and glaze. She recommends a quality full-fat ricotta made with whole milk like Galbani, which contains milk, vinegar, and salt only.
It’s important to sieve the ricotta if it’s too wet or else the cookies will be harder to roll. Chill the wet dough for two hours or overnight to firm it up before rolling.
Use unwaxed organic lemons so the outer layer contains no pesticides or petrochemicals, which are hard to rinse off. For a bright lemony taste, use fresh, not boiled, lemon juice.
Giada suggests avoiding the bitter white pith and only zesting the thin yellow skin before juicing. Only glaze the cookies after they’ve cooled to avoid them absorbing the glaze.