Easy Ricotta Cookies With Eggnog Glaze

T minus 9 days until Christmas.  I have given myself the green light to eat cookies for breakfast for the next week and a half.  Don’t judge.  I have been testing out recipes for our annual cookie swap.  This recipe is a huge contender.  The ingredients are simple, they scream holiday, and one batch makes 3 dozen so it won’t hurt the pocketbook or take up the whole day.  You might be thinking that ricotta cheese does not belong anywhere near my cookies.  I am telling you that the flavor stays neutral and gives the cookies a soft, dense texture.  The perfect Santa cookie.

How do I describe the texture of these puppies?  Soft, dense, subtle with a punch of cheer.  The ricotta cookies alone are quite plain, not very sweet.  The original recipe calls for a regular run-of-the-mill glaze of powdered sugar and milk *yawn*.   In all honesty I was going to make them the boring traditional way.  About a year or two ago I stopped buying regular milk and switched to unsweetened vanilla almond milk to cut back on calories (this was an attempt to balance out my cookie diet) so when I realized I didn’t have anything to make the glaze with, I used what I had in the fridge.  That’s how eggnog glaze was born.

You guys, this glaze is EVERYTHING!  Nothing says Christmas like eggnog. Just make these.  I promise, they won’t disappoint.

Ingredients

For the cookies

• 1/2 cup softened butter
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups all-purpose flour

For the glaze

• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• eggnog
• sprinkles

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 350 F.  Mix all of the cookie ingredients until the dough comes together into a big ball.  It will be very sticky.  I used a medium cookie scoop to make them more uniform and so I didn’t make too much of a mess.  Drop dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes.  Cool.  In a small pan, slowly add eggnog to the powdered sugar until it thins out enough to be able to dip cookies.  Dip tops of cookies into the glaze and top with sprinkles while glaze is still wet.