Who doesn’t like thumbprints? Not me, my kids, my hubby, nor Santa (the thumbprints were always gone from Santa’s cookie plate on Christmas morning). While perusing the internet for holiday cookie recipes I came across the blog, Chew Out Loud. Their most requested cookie recipe (hands down winner) is for Buttery Jam Thumbprint Cookies. Really, is it so surprising? A buttery meltingly tender cookie filled with a “thumbleful” (get it? thumb + thimble) of sweet jam in the center, finished with a dusting of powder sugar. Heavenly.
So of course I included thumbprints in this year’s 12 Days of Cookies. My favorite recipe comes from an old copy of Ladie’s Home Journal (yes, I am that old). I have made these every year for as long as I have been baking Christmas cookies. The addition of ground walnuts to the dough gives these cookies a nutty edge and a slightly sandier texture. I like filling the centers with raspberry jam, its rich ruby red color playing off the surrounding cookie. The sweet and tart flavor of the jam compliments the cookie perfectly. You can substitute pecans for the walnuts although I prefer walnuts which have a bit of a bite that works really well. Did I mention they are super easy to make? Run, don’t walk to your kitchen and make these cookies now.
Over the years I have found little tricks that help when making cookies. Ice cream scoops are the secret to uniform sized cookies and definitely speed up the process of scooping out the dough. I make the indentation for the jam with my wine opener (nifty huh) and creates the perfect sized circle in the middle of the cookie, much better than my thumb!
You can use any flavor jam you like. Put jam in a squeeze bottle and shoot approximately 1/4 teaspoon of jam into each indentation made. As the cookies are cooling, you can add a spot more jam in the center if you wish. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. I use a wire mesh tea strainer for my powdered sugar, works like a charm.
And for your listening pleasure the King-Blue Christmas
Remember that number. Way back in January we took an impromptu trip to New York for my cousin’s birthday. My cousin’s wife Kathy, baker, crafter, home chef extraordinaire made all of the scrumptious desserts – birthday cake, lemon parfaits, and an amazing assortment of cookies for the shindig. We ate, we danced, we laughed. Not surprisingly I was enamored with all of the desserts Kathy made, one in particular, stood out. A cinnamon-y, crispy-crunchy cookie with almonds scattered throughout.
When we returned home from our NY jaunt I fired off an e-mail to Kathy.
Me: Hey Kathy, Great party! As usual delicious food, great company, and so much fun! Loved those crunchy almond cookies! Mind sending me the recipe?
Kathy: Still recovering from the party. Yep, those are good cookies. The recipe is from Nick Malgieri’s Cookies Unlimited, they’re called Dutch Almond Cookies.
Me: Wait, I think I have that book (surprise, surprise)
…I scurry off to find said book
Seize the Dough
The first time I made them was a total disaster. The recipe is actually pretty simple. Butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and a touch of water are heated until the sugar is melted. Once the sugar has dissolved toss in the whole blanched almonds. The almond mixture is then combined with the dry ingredients. All was fine until I stirred in the flour and bam! It seized and instantly transformed into a crumbly dry mess. Ugh. Disappointing. I tried to salvage it by pressing it into a baking pan and chilling it. Unfortunately, even after chilling, it was not workable and it ended up in my compost bin. Where did I go wrong?
I turned to my trusty laptop, googled Nick Malgieri, and fired off an e-mail lamenting my disaster. True to form and further validating how nice bakers are, I received a response from him shortly. After some mulling, he concluded that I had probably used too much flour.
One hundred and twenty-ish
When you try these bundles of crispy crunchy goodness use a scale if you have one. It may save you from the “un-malleable mess” I had the first time. If you don’t have a scale, be gentle with your flour, don’t pack it in the cup when you measure.
I revisited these cookies for the holidays 2021. This time I decided to go with the standard weight of 122gms for a cup of flour. Worked like a charm. I think anywhere between 120-125gms of flour should work for these cookies. If you don’t have a scale, fluff your flour and lightly scoop it into your measuring cup with a spoon. Don’t pack it.
Sugar, butter, almonds, mixture on the stove before adding the flour.
Added the flour, this is the step I always approach with trepidation…and where I implore you to get a scale!
This batch actually has a smidge to much flour…see the dry parts? But no seizing of the dough, Yay! Use parchment or heavy-duty foil with plenty of excess to grab, it was a b*tch trying to remove it, the regular-weight, too-short foil kept ripping.
Ready for the oven, be generous with the cinnamon sugar.
This time the dough did not turn into a chalky brick, instead, it was very thick and almost pourable. I put it in an 8×8 pan lined with foil (very important) covered it with plastic wrap and chilled the dough overnight. Once chilled it hardens and becomes easy to cut. Divide dough into 3 logs. Cut 1 log at a time leaving the remaining logs in the fridge. If it crumbles while cutting, just smoosh (a technical term used by all serious chefs) it back together. The recipe calls for 1/4″ inch slices. These are really crunchy cookies I would slice them a smidge thinner than 1/4 inch rather than more. Place the cookies on a parchment-lined sheet about 1 inch apart and sprinkle generously with cinnamon sugar. Bake for 15 minutes. Make sure to bake the cookies until they are a rich golden brown and firm to touch. Once cooled the slices will be crispy-crunchy similar to biscotti. If under-baked the cookies will be chewy instead of crisp.
This recipe makes a ton of cookies, perfect for that upcoming holiday cookie swap. Delightful cookies, crunchy, airy, perfect with tea or coffee.
Added bonus, a holiday tune to go along with these scrumptious cookies. From Peanuts Christmas- Linus and Lucy
3/4cup1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces
1cupfirmly packed light brown sugar
1cupgranulated sugar
6tablespoonswater
2cupswhole blanched almonds
Topping:
1/2cupgranulated sugar
1teaspoonground cinnamon
Instructions
Line an 8-inch square pan with aluminum foil; butter foil. Line 2 or 3 baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and cinnamon. Set aside.
Melt butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat and stir in brown sugar, granulated sugar and water. Return to heat and bring to boil, stirring occasionally, until sugar melts. Remove from heat and stir in almonds.
Pour sugar-almond mixture into a large bowl and stir in dry ingredients. Press dough into prepared square pan, cover with plastic wrap and chill overnight or until firm.
About 20 minutes before you are ready to bake cookies, set racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees.
Prepare topping: thoroughly combine 1/2 cup granulated sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon; set aside.
Unmold the "brick" of cookie dough from the pan and place on cutting board. Cut brick into three bars, each 8-by-2 1/2-by- 1 1/4 inches (bars will be just a little more than 2 1/2-inches wide). Wrap 2 bars in parchment paper, wax paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate. Cut remaining brick into 1/4-inch thick slices. As you cut cookies, place them on prepared sheets 1 inch apart in all directions.
Just before putting sheets in oven, sprinkle tops of cookies generously with the cinnamon sugar. Bake cookies for about 15 minutes, or until they are golden and firm. Slide the parchment with the cookies on top onto cooling racks. Cookies will crisp as they cool. Repeat with remaining bars of dough.
Store cookies between sheets of parchment or wax paper in a tin or plastic container with a tight-fitting lid. If freezing the bar(s), it is best to thaw dough overnight in the refrigerator before slicing and baking.
Rock and rollers, Tom Cruise, that Bieber Kid, they all have their groupies. I am a Dorie groupie. Yep, not ashamed to admit it. Dorie is the bomb. Are you wondering-who? Not that hilarious little blue fish in Finding Nemo? No. “You mean Ellen DeGeneres who voices that cute little fish?” Nope. I am a fan of Dorie, Dorie Greenspan-cookbook author, dessert queen, cookie connoisseur and baker extraordinaire.
The Real Deal
I recently drove up to the City to see her at Omnivore Books, one of many tour stops (how does she do it?) for her newest book, Dories Cookies. A hefty compendium of deliciousness that, yes, is all about the cookie. Her recipe for Jammers, a buttery sable’ topped with jam and streusel alone makes it worth getting. I don’t know Dorie on a personal level, but she is gracious, humorous and generous-one of the nicest souls you’ll meet. This comes across when meeting her in person and in her writing.
Here I am with Dorie!
All this, and her cookbooks are REALLY, REALLY good. The recipes are well written, easy to follow, and the results are YUMMY. Before heading to the book signing I spent an agonizing few minutes trying to pick which book of hers I wanted her to sign (I literally have all of them). I went with the first Dorie book I ever bought, Paris Sweets. It contains her iconic recipe for Korova Cookies, aka World Peace Cookies and has the loveliest illustrations.
As I waited in line, I talked to Dorie’s husband Michael. Wouldn’t you know it, he is just as nice! The list of recipes I have tried from Dorie’s books grows ever longer and this newest book will definitely add to it. Right about now is when I start looking in earnest for cookie recipes for the holidays. I opened the book and bam, Vanilla Polka Dot Cookies caught my eye. The cookie starts with a buttery, vanilla laden dough made with egg whites. The dough smelled so delicious, I had to stop myself from dipping my finger in the bowl and popping a swirl of dough in my mouth.
The dough comes together quickly and can be used for this recipe immediately. Scoop, roll and dip. Place the balls on a lined baking sheet press to flatten and bake. How easy is that?
The dough does not spread so press the cookies to desired thickness. I wanted a flatter thinner cookie, a smaller cookie, approximately 2.5 inches in diameter. I used a tablespoon ice cream scoop to portion the dough. The cookies took only 14 minutes to bake, well short of the suggested 20-22 minutes. My cookies were much smaller which accounts for the shorter baking time. Watch the cookies carefully when baking, they brown very quickly. All in all these fit the bill for a crispy, buttery festive cookie perfect for the holidays. I brought them to Thanksgiving dinner and the kids gobbled (get it?) them up.
The recipe for these cookies can be found here along with her recipe for World Peace Cookies, courtesy of the Star Telegram. If you are a Dorie fan like me, take a photo of any of Dorie’s cookies you make from her book, post it on Twitter or Instagram, and tag it with #Doriescookies and @Cookies4Kids. This will automatically trigger a 5 dollar donation to pediatric cancer research, woohoo! Thanks and HAPPY HOLIDAYS.
Not all was amazing during our impromptu trip to New York for my cousin Mike’s surprise party in January (here is the good stuff though, from my The Big Apple post). After visiting Ground Zero, we headed to Payard’s, a well known French bakery with an outpost on Houston Street. All I can say is maybe it was an off day, but the pastries were disappointing at best. We ordered a lemon tart, an oatmeal cookie and a Napoleon. The Napoleon and cookie weren’t memorable at all, which is a good thing because the lemon tart was memorable because it was NOT good. The crust (I love crust) was so tough we had to use our knife and fork to chisel through it.
Ugh, so Disappointing
I went up to the counter (ok, never said I wasn’t obnoxious) and asked “what one item in here would prove to me that Payard is worth his reputation. To her credit she laughed and gave me a complimentary slice of the Payard Tart. It was ok, definitely better than the lemon tart.
Anyway You Slice It
When we first arrived I spied his book Payard Cookies on display and my reaction was oh nooo, not another cookbook and its about cookies! My cookbook addiction was about to rear it’s ugly head since I seldom pass up the opportunity to add to my collection.
After trying the desserts I walked out without a copy.
You might be asking where is this story going? Well, having put Payard Cookies out of my mind I was perusing a favorite blog, Ipso-Fatto recently and to my surprise she had posted glowing reviews of a couple of cookies from Payard. Well, maybe we did catch Payard on a bad day. I tried the Raspberry Diamants and you know, they’re pretty darn good and a breeze to make.
It is a slice and bake cookie which I love, so flippin’ easy. You can make the dough in advance and leave it in the fridge. You can bake as many or as few as you want and freeze the remaining dough for a rainy day. These cookies are a riff on sables’, the French version of shortbread cookies. Diamont, French for diamonds, refers to the sparkly edge on the cookies created by rolling the dough in coarse sugar before baking. Description done, let’s go make some delicious cookies!
It’s Berry Good
Adding raspberry jam makes this cookie a little softer than a classic sable’. Which gives the cookies a sweet tart flavor and flecks of red color. Payard adds red food coloring to the dough to make the cookies pink but I didn’t. Use jam with seeds, it adds a bit of crunch. You can kick these cookies up a notch by making a sandwich cookie using raspberry jam for the filling or a raspberry buttercream. Oh snap.
Uh-oh looks like I may be adding yet another cookbook to my collection.
All Things Reconsidered (Raspberry Diamants from Payard)
Prep Time 20 minutesminutes
Total Time 45 minutesminutes
Ingredients
Adapted from Payard Cookies
14tablespoons200gms unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3cup80 gms powdered sugar
1large egg yolkreserve egg white
1/4cup60gms raspberry jam with seeds (I used TJ's)
1-3drops of liquid red food coloringoptional
1 3/4cups225gms all purpose flour
Pinchof salt
1cup200gms granulated sugar or sanding sugar
Instructions
In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat softened butter with powdered sugar until fully combined. Add egg yolk, raspberry jam, and food coloring. Mix until well combined.
Add flour and salt and mix only until dough comes together. Careful to not overmix.
Place dough on piece of parchment paper and roll into a log about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Freeze dough for approximately 2 hours, or until log is chilled all the way through. You can freeze dough for up until one month.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment.
Remove dough from fridge. Put granulated sugar in a large rimmed baking sheet.
Brush the reserved egg white on the outside of the cookie dough.
Roll in granulated sugar until completely coated. Return to fridge for 5 minutes to chill.
Remove from fridge and slice roll into 1/4 inch slices. Place on parchment lined sheet approximately 1 inch apart.
Bake for 8-10 minutes or until cookies just begin to turn color and the edges are golden brown.
Remove cookies from oven and transfer to a cooling rack. Cool completely and store in an airtight container for up to one week.
Is it December already? Time to get in the holiday spirit. In my book that means baking cookies and listening to holiday tunes. I am an unabashed lover of Christmas music. You won’t find me anywhere near a mall on Black Friday. Instead, I’ll be home pulling out my favorite Christmas CDs and kicking back. I’ll wait for CyberMonday to get serious about shopping. For my first holiday season blogging, it seems fitting to create a top 12 days of Christmas cookies list with holiday tunes to go along. If you have a tried and true delicious recipe you make every year, I would love to post it here to share with everyone. Just email or message me on Facebook. A virtual cookie swap! Don’t forget to include your favorite Christmas song, a picture of your creation, and if there is a special story behind the recipe.
I’m Excited, Lets Get Started!
Do They Know It’s Christmas by Band Aid just for you.
Just like her World Peace Cookie, this is another yummy cookie by Dorie Greenspan (how does she do it?) aptly named Jammers. These edible jewels start with a tender shortbread cookie base topped with a nice dollop of jam and finished with a buttery, crumbly streusel topping. Before Dorie released her recipe Tim of Lottie + Doof created his version. The original Jammers are made in 3-inch ring molds. I opt to make them smaller in mini-muffin tins, an idea I found on another blog. Either way, they are delicious.
A Couple of Tips When Making these Cookies
Feel free to use your favorite jam. I often use a couple of different ones for the color appeal. Butter or spray the tins well or the cookies will stick to the pan. I use a tablespoon ice cream scoop to measure out the dough into each cup and lightly tamp the dough into the tins. This is not like a tartlet or mini piecrust. The dough should be a thick layer (~1/2 inch thick) filling approximately 2/3 of the cup. I would leave some space at the top or the jam will spill out as the cookies bake. Top with a generous sprinkle of streusel but try to leave spots of jam exposed. It is prettier that way.
Go Big Or Go Home
Christmas Eve 2022: So I decided I wanted to get closer to the original Jammer, that is, a bigger cookie. I pulled out my regular muffin tin to make Dorie’s Jammers. Through experimentation, I settled on 25 grams of dough that I tamped into each muffin cup. Yep, no rolling and cutting. This should give you a disc of dough about 1/2 inch thick that pretty much fills the tin.
The rest of the recipe is pretty much the same. Baking time is a little longer, approximately 20-22 minutes until the edge is golden brown.
Adapted from Lottie & Doof's version of Dorie Greenspan's Jammers by Blackjack Bakehouse
Makes about 42 cookies
Cookie dough
1cup2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2cupgranulated sugar
1/4cupconfectioners' sugarsifted
1/2teaspoonkosher saltheaping
2large egg yolksat room temperature
1/2teaspoonpure vanilla extract
2cupsall-purpose flour
Streusel Topping
3tablespoonsunsalted butter
1/2cupall-purpose flour
1/4cuplight brown sugar
1tablespoongranulated sugar
1/4teaspoonkosher saltheaping
1/8teaspoonground cinnamon
Instructions
Directions for dough:
In large bowl or in bowl of an electric stand mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until very creamy. Add the sugars and salt and beat until well combined, about 1 minute. With mixer on low, beat in egg yolks and vanilla until well blended, about one minute.
Add all of flour at once and with mixer on low, blend with butter mixture until just combined. Do not overmix! (I barely beat it in and then combined the last few streaks of flour with a spatula.)
Press dough into a mound and cover dough in bowl with plastic wrap, pressing the wrap against the dough. Cover bowl tightly with more wrap or foil and chill for at least 2 hours or for up to 2 days.
Directions for Streusel:
Place butter in a microwave-safe bowl and melt in microwave. Add the remaining ingredients and stir until well-combined and pebbly. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours or for up to 2 days.
When ready to bake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter or spray a mini muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray thoroughly. These babies like to stick a little, so grease the cups well.
Break up the streusel crumb topping mixture with a fork until pebbly and set aside.
Press small mounds of cookie dough, about 1 tablespoon-size, into each cup as though making a thick cookie crust (as opposed to a thin pie crust that will just crumble when you try to remove it from the mini muffin pan). The crust should come up to just below the rim of the cup and there should be a small indention in each cup for the filling.
Place about 1 teaspoon of jam/pie filling in each indentation, then top the filled cookies with a generous sprinkle of streusel mixture.
Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until the top edges of the cookies are golden brown and the crumb mixture is golden.
Allow cookies to cool in pan for 10 minutes, then carefully remove and allow to cool directly on wire rack until completely cool.
Store, uncovered or lightly covered, at room temperature
Finally, finished transferring my wp blog to self-hosting! This calls for a celebratory post, which means food! If there is one post you should read it is this one. Years ago a friend gave me a recipe for Mrs. Field’s Chocolate Chip cookies with the caveat “You have to promise not to give this recipe to anyone, this is THEE recipe”. So I promised, and I have been true to my word. Well for the most part (2 exceptions). But, I believe the statute of limitations has passed on that promise. So here is the recipe for Mrs. Field’s Chocolate Chip Cookies, the edges are crispy, the center buttery and chewy, full of gooey chocolate chips and the sweetness tempered by pecans. These are absolutely amazing just out of the oven, still warm, with an ice cold glass of milk… just promise not to give the recipe to anyone!
3cupschocolate chipsI reduce this to 2 cups and add toffee bits. Actually 2 cups even without the toffee. 3 is a lot.
1cupchopped nuts
1/2 cuptoffee bitsoptional
Instructions
Mix flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl, and set aside. Mix sugars, butter and eggs in bowl, add vanilla. Add flour mixture (add additional flour is dough seems soft, max 2 T) Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.
Cover cookie sheet with parchment to allow for cookies to slide off and prevent cookies from overbaking. Using ice cream scoop (1/4 cup for big cookies, I use a 2 T scoop and bake for approx 13 min) drop dough onto pan.
Bake 325 15-18 min., rotate pan halfway through. Underbake for chewier, moist cookie.
My variations, the original was too sweet for my taste, I decreased the chocolate to 2 cups, increased the nuts to 1 1/2 cups and added 1/4 to 1/3 cup old fashioned oats. Sometimes I throw in toffee bits 1/4-1/2 cup.
Notes
Approximately 3-4 minutes before the cookies are finished baking, open oven and grasp cookie sheet with oven mitt. Bang the sheet on the rack to cause cookie to fall. this creates crevices and folds in the cookies. Optional.
I love baking cookies. Every Christmas I bake an assortment of cookies for family and friends, a tradition I started years ago. Last year I made bags of granola instead and realized just how much less stress I had by not baking 10 different kinds of cookies! But (sigh), I’ll go back to baking cookies, its a labor of love and I am a glutton for punishment. There are the tried and true cookies I bake year after year; the few that show up from time to time and then, one or two new cookies each holiday season.
The Perfect Cookie
The cornerstone of my Holiday box of cookies is the traditional Scottish Shortbread. The recipe, from the long-defunct Cuisine magazine, was the bonus to the story, My Father’s Shortbread. The author recounts watching his father making shortbread every Christmas. His father’s only tools were his hands. I cheat a little and use a mixer to combine the flour into the kneaded butter but everyone should make shortbread completely by hand once.
Shortbread is my absolute favorite cookie. It’s probably because I am a butter FREAK. I love butter. People ask, do you want a little toast with that butter? Shortbread cookies are the closest you will get to just popping a little pat of moo-magic in your mouth.
The dough can be rolled and cut into traditional wedges or works beautifully as cutouts. I have in my collection a couple of embossed rolling pins that can be used with shortbread. Roll the dough to approximately 1/4 inch and then use your embossed pin to create the pattern on the cookie. The dough is easy to work with and very forgiving.
(left upper corner going clockwise) Nutmeg logs, World Peace cookies, pecan tartlets, mocha macadamia slices, jan hagels, thumbprints, crescents, peanut & bittersweet chocolate cookies, traditional shortbread, corn cookies
My Father’s Shortbread is my favorite, go-to shortbread cookie, but Bouchon’s Shortbread is a close second!
Adapted from My Father’s Shortbread by Sydney Edelson Cuisine Magazine Dec 1983
Work butter until soft but not melting. Easiest thing to do is pound the butter with a rolling pin Fold butter in half and smoosh it with pin (yes smoosh) until malleable but not warm.
Place butter in bowl of a stand mixer, add sugar and salt cream until combined, do not beat until fluffy as this will incorporate too much air into butter.
Add flour to butter mixture and mix on low until particles cling together. Remove from bowl and knead gently until smooth and soft. Pat or roll into a rectangle about 3/8" thick. Mark off pieces 1" x 2-1/2", prick with fork and chill for 1 hour.
Cut apart and place on cold baking sheet 1/2" apart.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees, place shortbread in oven and immediately turn temperature down to 275 degrees. Bake for 30 minutes, rotate pan and leave for additional 10-15 minutes.
Cookies are done when bottoms are golden brown and sand color on top. You can use cookie cutters if you wish. Shortbread retain their shape well.
Notes
Remember to turn your oven down to 275 when you put the cookies in the oven!!!
