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1
Place the 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.
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2
Place oven racks in the upper portions of your oven. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. (You will reduce heat to 350 when you put the cookies in)
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3
In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
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4
In the bowl of a standing mixer, add butter and beat on medium for 10 seconds.
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5
With the mixer running on medium, slowly pour in the sugar. Beat the butter and sugar for 2 minutes, stopping once to scrap down the sides of the bowl. You should get a nice and fluffy result. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating until incorporated.
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6
Add the ricotta cheese and the vanilla paste. Beat to combine.
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7
Stir in the dry ingredients.
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8
Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Spoon the dough (about 1 heaping tablespoon for each cookie) onto the baking sheets. To get a more uniform shape and even baking, I like to roll them into balls and chill the sheets for about 30 minutes before I put them in the oven.
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9
Turn down the oven to 350 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 minute 12.
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10
Remove from the oven and let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 20 minutes.
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11
GLAZE:
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12
Combine the 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.
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13
Spoon about 1/2 teaspoon onto each cookie and use the back of the spoon to gently spread.
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14
Add a little lemon zest to the tops of each.
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15
Let the glaze harden for about 2 hours before storing.
