Italian Ricotta Cookies

It's day 5 of my 25 Days of Cookies series, what do you all think so far?!

Today's cookie is one I tried at work.  My cube-mate Stephanie of Just Us Gals blog brought these in to share with the office.  She broke them out nice and early, and I hoarded them at our desk until I could take a couple pictures (and a couple cookies for myself, hah!)

These are great; ingredients are simple and you likely have almost everything you need at home, and they aren't overly sweet so you can have them for breakfast like I did, or dessert.  The cookies come together quickly, and the following recipe makes about 6 dozen.  If you can't see yourself eating that many cookies, bring the extras to work.  Your coworkers will love you, trust me!

Italian Ricotta Cookies
Baked by Stephanie's roommate, Hayley

Recipe by Hayley's friend Liz' grandmother who is from Italy

Thank you to both Hayley and Liz for sharing your cookies and your recipe!!

Blend 2 sticks of margarine, 2 cups of sugar and 15oz of ricotta cheese.  Add 2 beaten eggs, 2 tsp. of vanilla, 4 cups of four, 1 tsp of baking soda, and 1 tsp of salt.  Drop by teaspoon on a cookie sheet.  Bake at 350F for about 15 minutes or until the bottoms are brown. 

The original recipe calls for an icing glaze made by mixing powdered sugar and slowly mixing in nonfat milk until the powdered sugar turns into a thick liquid.  Drizzle the glaze on top of the cookies once they have cooled, then sprinkle with coconut shavings.  If you don't like coconut, powdered sugar on top (like the ones pictured) tastes great too!

D'Amici's...take two!

This week has been a long, AWESOME week.  The highlights were obviously the BRUINS WINNING THE STANLEY CUP  (I'm in recoup mode from the parade this morning) and me getting a new job!  To celebrate, hubs and I got sushi and decided to give D'Amici's in Melrose another try.  While the service hasn't changed, our desserts definitely got better grades this time around.

We got mini-versions of five different things and had a couple bites of each.  First up, mini mocha cake.

Mini Mocha Cake
Grade: A-
Comments: Awesome mocha frosting, good consistency but bland cake.

Almond Cream Cookie (can't remember the actual name of this one)
Grade: A+  this was our favorite!
Comments: Chewy almondy cookie, pastry cream filled chocolate dome--- awesome!  We inhaled this one.

Pecan Diamond
Grade: A
Comments:  Pretty much what we expected.  Good, but not extraordinary.

Mini Chocolate Torte
Grade: B-
Comments: Super soft cake that tasted okay, frosting tasted like it came out of a can from the grocery store- very unimpressed!  If they used real, high quality dark chocolate for this it would be amazing.

Coconut Mound
Grade:  A-
Comments:  Very dense, great coconut flavor, balanced sweetness with toasted coconut and chocolate topping.  Slightly dry, and would have been an A+ if there was just a little more chocolate.

Mini Ricotta Cake
Grade: C
Comments:  Our least favorite.  This was dry, bland, super light lemon flavor, and turned thick/pasty in our mouths when we were eating it.  Pretty gross actually and definitely do not recommend this one.

PS-- What do you think of the pictures on this post?  Hubby took them all- I think he's a great photographer and I might make him take them all for me from now on.  Thank you hubby!