Jam Thumbprint Cookies

These seem to be the cookies of people’s childhoods. Whether out of the packet or made my mum, people remember these.

They also seem to go by a few names, like Jam drops or Jam cookies. That’s OK. Call them what you like, they’re lovely buttery shortbread cookies,with a soft jam centre.

I’d been meaning to make these for awhile but had it in my head that they’d be tricky. They’re not. Make the dough. Roll balls. Poke the top with the handle of a wooden spoon.

And my best tip in the whole wide world – use an icing bag (preferably a disposable one) to fill them up with jam. Bake. Eat.

Pipe your jam in – much easier than using spoons

I also think these would be great at Christmas time with green and red candied cherries in them, or some sort of red and green jam combo. Grape? What jam is green?

I’ll find something. I have faith.

Ingredients

225 grams (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg plus 1 egg yolk, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup almond meal
1/3 cup of good jam

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F) degrees, and line a cookie sheet with baking paper.
2. Cream butter and sugar until smooth. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla one at a time, mix until incorporated.
3. Combine flour, salt and almond meal in a separate bowl and whisk until uniform. Slowly add flour mixture to the butter. Mix until dough is coming together nicely and not sticking to the bowl.
4. (optional instruction I did not follow: knead a few times and chill dough 1 hour.)
5. Roll dough into 1 inch balls. Place on prepared cookie sheet 2 inches apart. Make an indentation in the centre of each ball with your thumb or the handle of a wooden spoon.
6. Fill each cookie with a generous 1/4 teaspoon of jam. To do this I placed my jam in a piping bag with a large nozzle, and piped it in the cookies.
7. Fill them as much as you can, as when the cookies cool, the jam tends to sink.
8. Bake until edges are golden brown, about 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven and allow cookies to rest for a minute before transferring to a rack to cool. Top with additional jam if desired.

Quantity: 3 dozen. That’s 36 nummie cookies.

Healthy? 110 calories a cookie.

Storage: In a cookie tin. Mine lasted a few weeks and were still fresh and lovely.

Source: Stonewall kitchen.