Thumbprints for @TradeSchoolIndy's Cookie Exchange

December 12, 2012 at 1:00 PM | Posted in I am creative., I am resourceful., Sometimes I cook. | 1 Comment

What does one do when one has acquired too many exotic jams and jellies in an overenthusiastic swapping frenzy? I’m talking three berry jalapeño, basil blueberry, and the like, all in a household that uses jam really only for peanut butter sandwiches. Well, one idea recently employed was to re-swap a couple of them. The other idea was to make cookies.

Trade School Indianapolis hosted a cookie exchange as part of the Crafty Happy Hour yesterday. When I saw it offered I thought, Yes! and signed up. See, I have a dear friend who I’ve watched make thumbprint cookies with her mother in years past and, having eaten those cookies, I know it’s a winning recipe. I texted her for said recipe and got the following photos in return. Ah, modern technology used to share old—gotta love it.

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Thumbprint Cookies

I doubled the recipe on the cards, yielding 4½ dozen cookies. I think mine must’ve been bigger than the recipe directs. I used two jams made by my friend Suzanne—peach with almond extract and black pepper, and strawberry with aged balsamic vinegar and black pepper—to fill the cookies of this batch. They were delicious!

1 lb. butter, softened
1 c. sugar
4 egg yolks
2 tsp. vanilla extract
4 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
½ c. jam or jelly of your choice, more or less

1. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.

2. Beat in yolks and vanilla.

3. Add flour and salt. Mix well. Refrigerate an hour or more.

4. Preheat oven to 350ºF.

5. Place 1″ balls 2″ apart on an ungreased cookie sheet; I used one of those mini spring-loaded scoops and got 12 balls on a half sheet pan. Put the remaining dough back in the fridge. Make a depression in each ball; I used the back of a ½-tsp. measuring spoon and my friend always used the rounded end of a wooden spoon.

6. Bake for 12 minutes. Make the depression in each ball again.

7. Fill each depression with ~½ tsp. jam. (I started with ¼ tsp. but it wasn’t enough. Results may have been different if I had used thin jelly instead of thick homemade jam.) Return cookies to oven for an additional 12 minutes. They should be barely golden when done.

8. Cool cookies on rack, then eat or store. I have no idea how long they can be stored because, due to nearly nonexistent self-control, they disappear before they go stale. Supposedly the cookies can be frozen, too.

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