Tangerine Ricotta Cookies

These tangerine ricotta cookies are soft, tender, and cake-like. Finish them with a sweet glaze, tangerine zest, and your favorite sprinkles or nonpareils. 

These Italian-inspired cookies are like little bites of soft cake. They are super moist from the ricotta in the dough. They also make wonderful Christmas cookies. Just change the colors of the sprinkles! 

These cookies have a sweet and bright citrusy flavor, and, despite the ricotta, do not taste like cheese at all. In fact, the ricotta itself does not seem to add a distinct flavor on its own other than richness. Instead, it adds more to the texture of the cookie..... moistness and softness rather than crispness and chewiness found in traditional cookies. 

Ingredients in these Tangerine Ricotta Cookies:

From the Pantry: All purpose flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, vanilla extract, almond extract, and confectioners' sugar. 

Ricotta Cheese: Be sure to use full fat ricotta. 

P.S. If you're interested in baking more desserts with ricotta, be sure to check out the Lemon poppyseed ricotta muffins, Lemon ricotta and thyme mini cakes, Blueberry lemon ricotta tea cake, Ricotta chocolate chip cookies, and Czech kolaches. 

Eggs.

Olive Oil: A mild flavored olive oil rather than a strongly flavored oil works best in this recipe. 

Tangerine Zest: For both the cookie dough and the glaze. 

Sprinkles or Nonpareils: Have fun with the colors. You can use orange or yellow sprinkles to go with the citrus flavor, or you can use colors to fit the occasion (like a birthday party!) or time of year. 

To Make These Cookies:

First, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt together and set the mixture aside. 

Next, beat the sugar and eggs together with an electric mixer for about five minutes, until pale and thick. Add the ricotta, olive oil, some of the zest, and extracts and beat until everything is combined. Beat in the flour mixture on low speed until just combined. 

After that, drop tablespoons of the dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake the cookies for twelve minutes. 

Finally, glaze the cookies with a mixture of confectioners' sugar, water, and zest and then decorate the cookies with non pareils. 

Equipment You May Need:

Kitchen Scale: A scale is very helpful for measuring ingredients that can vary in weight even if you measure precisely by volume. This is especially true with flour and confectioner's sugar. 

Tablespoon Cookie Scoop: For portioning the cookie dough onto the baking sheet. 

Baking Sheets: Also called half sheet pans. You can't have too many! You can re-use the baking sheets and parchmet for new batches. Just be sure to cool the pans completely between batches. 

Recipe Variations:

You can substitute any citrus for the tangerine, including orange, lemon, or lime. You can also omit the citrus and bring out the almond flavor, topping the cookies with thinly sliced almonds. 

For more texture and a chocolate and citrus flavor combination, you could add mini chocolate chips to the dough. 

Make-Ahead:

These cookies will stay tasty and fresh for a few days, however, storing glazed cookies is always difficult because the glaze can soften over time. Make sure the cookies have completely cooled and the glaze has fully hardened. It is helpful to place a layer of paper towels on the bottom of your container and store the cookies in a single layer or between layers of wax or parchment paper. 

You can also make these cookies in advance and freeze them before glazing them. Ice them later after thawing. 

"T" is for Tangerine, Tomato, Tassies, Thanksgiving, Thumbprint, Thyme, Taco, and More!

To continue the 2025 Alphabet Challenge, we are sharing recipes that begin with "T" or include ingredients that that begin with "T." 

• Jolene’s Recipe Journal: Tomato Tortellini Soup
• Karen’s Kitchen Stories: Tangerine Ricotta Cookies
• Food Lust People Love: Roasted Chicken Thighs with Stuffing
• A Messy Kitchen: Blueberry Buckle Tassies
• Sneha’s Recipe: Thakkali Chammanthi /Tomato Chutney
• Palatable Pastime: Pass Around Macaroni and Tomatoes
• Blogghetti: Thanksgiving Turkey Veggie Platter
• Culinary Cam: Bitter Orange and Blackberry Thumbprint Cookies
• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Michigan End of Summer Harvest Salad
• Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice: Budget-Friendly Chunky Potato Soup with Thyme
• Mayuri’s Jikoni: Mini Taco Salad Cups

For the 2024 Alphabet Challenge (last year), I made Chicken Teriyaki Rice Bowls. Perfect homemade copycat Japanese-style take-out and can be made in less than an hour! 

 

Tangerine Ricotta Cookies

Yield: 36 Cookies

Author: Karen Kerr

Prep time: 20 MinCook time: 36 MinTotal time: 56 Min

These tangerine ricotta cookies are soft, tender, and cake-like. Finish them with a sweet glaze, tangerine zest, and your favorite sprinkles or nonpareils. 

Ingredients

• 2 3/4 cups (351 grams) all purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups (297 grams) granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup (227 grams) full-fat ricotta cheese
• 1/3 cup mild flavored olive oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons tangerine zest, divided
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 2/3 cups (197 grams) confectioners' sugar
• Sprinkles/Non pareils for decorating

Instructions

1. Heat your oven to 350 degrees F with a rack in the center of the oven and line two to three baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat the sugar and eggs on medium high for five minutes, until the mixture is pale and thick. Add the ricotta, olive oil, 1 teaspoon of the zest, and extracts and beat until combined. Switch the mixing speed to low and add the flour mixture and beat until just combined.
4. Drop the dough by tablespoon onto the parchment lined baking sheet 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, for 12 minutes. Cool the cookies on the baking sheet.
5. When the cookies have cooled, mix the glaze. Combine the powdered sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of the zest, and 2 tablespoons of hot water and whisk until smooth. Spoon 1/2 teaspoon of the glaze over each cookie and decorate with nonpareils. Let the glaze harden. Store between layers of wax or parchment paper in an airtight container.

Nutrition Facts

Calories

126

Fat (grams)

3 g

Sat. Fat (grams)

1 g

Carbs (grams)

22 g

Fiber (grams)

0 g

Net carbs

21 g

Sugar (grams)

14 g

Protein (grams)

2 g

Cholesterol (grams)

19 mg

https://www.karenskitchenstories.com/2025/09/tangerine-ricotta-cookies.html

Karen's Kitchen Stories

cookies, ricotta

dessert

Italian

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Recipe adapted from Food Network.