Vanilla Bean Ricotta Cookie

Place ricotta cheese in a strainer over a bowl and place in the fridge overnight (or a couple hours) to drain out all the excess liquid. You can skip this if you have high quality ricotta at your store.

Place oven racks in the upper portions of your oven. Preheat oven to 375ºF. (You will reduce heat to 350ºF when you put the cookies in.)

In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of a standing mixer, add butter and beat on medium speed for 10 seconds. With mixer running on medium, slowly pour in sugar. Beat butter and sugar for 2 minutes, stopping once to scrape down the sides of the bowl. You should get a nice and fluffy mixture. Add eggs and egg white, 1 at a time, beating until incorporated.

Add the ricotta cheese and the vanilla paste. Beat to combine. Stir in the dry ingredients.

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Spoon dough (about 1 heaping tablespoon for each cookie) onto baking sheets. To get a more uniform shape that will bake evenly, I like to roll them into balls and chill the sheets for about 30 minutes before I put them in the oven.

Reduce oven temperature to 350ºF and bake for 15 minutes, until bottom edges have color and tops are starting to get a little color, rotating them halfway through and keeping an eye on them around the 12-minute mark. Remove from the oven and let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 20 minutes.

For the glaze:
Combine powdered sugar, half-and-half and vanilla bean paste in a small bowl and stir until smooth. You want the glaze to be fairly thick, but still loose enough that it naturally spreads to coat the cookie.

Spoon about ½ teaspoon onto each cookie and use the back of the spoon to gently spread. Add a little lemon zest to the tops of each if desired. Let glaze harden for about 2 hours before storing.

Note: These cookies are best eaten within a couple days.