Jam Thumbprint Cookies













If you are looking for a cookie that is healthy in any possible way, shape or form, walk away.  Walk away quickly and do not look back, you are looking in the wrong place. These cookies are delightfully rich.  They are perfectly lovely in every way, except if you are contemplating a bathing suit any time in the near future.  Well, that's what they made those ruffled bathing suit bottoms for, yes? 

The ingredients are extremely simple:  butter (3 sticks, room temperature), sugar (1 cup granulated), egg (just one), flour (3-1/4 cup, all-purpose, spooned and leveled) and jam (3/4 cup, any flavor that blows your hair back).  Think you can handle that?  I knew you could. 

First of all, preheat your oven to 350 degrees because I will forget to tell you later.  In a large bowl, beat together the butter and the sugar until your mixture is smooth.  Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl.  Add the egg.  Beat until it is completely combined. Slowly add your flour and mix until just incorporated.  Don't over mix.  Just get it where it is all one happy mixture. 

Now you will need to roll out your dough into about one inch balls.  According to Google, that is about 2 Tablespoons which still really doesn't help me.  I want them smaller than a ping pong ball but bigger than a marble.  That is just how scientific I can get.  I know, you are super impressed.  Place them about 3 inches apart on parchment paper.

Take your thumb and dip it quickly in water so that it won't stick to the dough, and make an indentation in the dough.  You want it about 3/4 of the way down into the ball of dough.  Here is where Martha Stewart and I disagree.  Bake the cookies just like this for 10 minutes at 350 degrees, then remove them.

During the ten minutes that they are in the oven, you need to heat up your jam. (I have used Michigan Sour Cherry Jam and Blackberry Jam, both worked extremely well)  I always do it on the stove, but I am assuming that the microwave would give you the exact same result.  After they have cooked for the first ten minutes, use the end of a wooden spoon to re-indent the cookie.  Yeah, I don't think that's a word. But you know what I mean.  Once the indentation has been reapplied, then add about 1/2 teaspoon of the heated jam. Then, bake the remaining 8-10 minutes.  By doing it this way, you won't have an evaporation line where the jam cooked off for the duration in the oven. 

You want them to be just slightly browned around the very edge.  Once removed from the oven, transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely. 

And then you have the most perfect Book Club cookies ever.  They really had nothing at all to do with The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, but paired with chai tea and a room full of friends, they truly made for a perfect cozy evening. 

Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart.