Okay, so this was my first time making these, and boy do I have some tips to share with you! I made these since I wanted a fruity cookie to balance out all the heartier flavors, and was basically, "Huh, this looks good. Let's go!" But they're kind of tricky.
In step three, please make sure that you make a good-sized indentation! You don't want it to go all the way down to the bottom of the cookie, just maybe halfway. This recipe calls for putting the jam in before you bake it--which I do like, it makes the fruit flavor stronger, I feel--but if the thumbprint is too shallow, the jam overflows and covers the cookie with stickiness. And furthermore, using jam is not quite the way to go. I tried this using both jam and fruit preserves, and found that the preserves held better together than the jam, which had a tendency to melt and run. Finally, the last step requires these to be dusted with powdered sugar. Use a sifter, or else lightly dunk these upside-down in the sugar
Learn from Miss Scarlett's
The ingredients:
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1/2 cup powdered (confectioner's) sugar
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 cups flour
- 1 jar of fruit preserves**
**This can be any flavor that you want!
How to make it:
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. While it is heating, line your cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Place the butter and sugar in a bowl and cream together until light and fluffy--about 2 minutes. Add the vanilla and salt, mixing for a bit. Then add the flour, and mix it in until just combined--you don't want to overmix!
- Roll the cookie dough into small balls. Place them on the cookie sheets. Press down on each cookie with your thumb; you want them to spread out a little and have a nice little dent you can place the jam in.
- Fill each dent with no more than a teaspoonful of preserves. Trust me, it's plenty.
- I should note here that the original recipe called for 325 degrees and no more than 15 minutes, but I found that the cookie were still raw after doing it. I bumped the temp to 350 and cooked for about 18 minutes, and was satisfied, but you might want to keep an eye on these. You want them to be puffy, and with slightly golden brown bottoms.
- Let these cool a few minutes on the sheets, then transfer to cooling racks. Dust with some more powdered sugar.
