I don't proof at room temperature because I find shaping and
handling cold dough to be far easier.
Start
with cold dough — instead of warm or room - temperature — so that the cheese mixture doesn't melt.
Once risen, place in the fridge to chill before rolling,
As cold dough is much easier to work with.
Roll cold dough out to 3/8 inch thick — make sure you don't make it too thin.
I like to drain my ricotta in a strainer over a bowl that I keep in my fridge overnight, when your ricotta is nice and
cold the dough comes together beautifully, if the ricotta is warm or room temperature it tends to be more sticky and you'll keep adding more flour which in turn makes your gnocchi heavier, and we don't want heavy gnocchi do we?
Then, when
the cold dough hits the hot oven, the butter expands and puffs out the flour.
As you can tell by now,
cold dough is your friend when making cut - out cookies.
The cold dough is a bit easier to roll out than room temperature dough... but I made this recipe without chilling the dough overnight, and I had success.
On a floured surface, roll out
the cold dough to a circumference of about 12 - 14 inches.
It's especially easy to roll out
the cold dough.
Bake
the cold dough for 8 minutes.
Roll
the cold dough between 2 pieces of lightly floured parchment paper to a 1/4 inch thickness.