Friday, December 19, 2008

RASPBERRY THUMBPRINTS


This little shortbread cookie has become a real family favorite over the years. My friend Chris passed this one on to me and we all love her for it! It's a super simple recipe. Very few ingredients. And if you don't like raspberry, then you can use your own favorite jam in place of it. 
I've used homemade peach jam, Blueberry jam and lemon curd as well. The peach is really yummy. But the raspberry remains the favorite!

RASPBERRY THUMBPRINTS

1 cup butter (NO SUBSTITUTES), softened
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon almond extract (Can sub  vanilla) 
2 cups flour
1/3 to 1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam

Glaze
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 to 3 teaspoons water
1/2 teaspoon almond extract (can sub vanilla)

Cream butter and sugar. Beat in extract. Gradually add flour until dough forms a ball. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or until easy to handle.

Using a cookie scoop, scoop out dough and roll dough into 1-inch balls. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheets. Using the end of a wooden spoon handle, make an indentation in the center. Fill with jam. Bake at 350°F for 14-18 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool. Spoon additional jam into cookies if desired.

Combine glaze ingredients; pour into an icing bag (or quart size ziploc bag), snip a tiny hole in the bag, drizzle in an even pattern over the cookies.

Yield: about 3 1/2 dozen.

*NOTE* I use my finger to make the indentation, but a spoon works too. Also, if you are using Pampered chef
 bakeware, you may want to shorten the baking time. You don't want these cookies to brown, necessarily. Just a light tan on the bottom. They will finish cooking on the stone when you take them out of the oven.

*Over the years I've experimented with different flavors. One that is really nice is lemon! I swapped out the almond extract for lemon and filled the thumbprint with lemon curd. If you like lemon but don't want them super lemony, you can use vanilla in the cookie dough and glaze and just lemon curd in the imprint. 
I've also done Blueberry jam and peach jam. Both of those are delicious as well. 
Of course, those would both have vanilla in the dough and glaze. 

6 comments:

TO BECOME said...

That looks great. I wanted to stop by and wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas. connie

Jane said...

Starr...I would love to try these....but...I can't get past the Almond Extract. I just can't like it...LOL So, could I use something?? vanilla, maybe??

Starr said...

I didn't have any this year either Jane, and used vanilla in them. They still turned out fine.

Unknown said...

These really do look "dreamy". I'm going to give these a try, thanks!

Anonymous said...

These cookies are delicious! So good in fact, that I sent them with my dh to a cookie swap at work and won a giftcard for being one of the best there.

Terri said...

Yum! I was worried about the almond extract because my dd is allergic to nuts but the vanilla will work great!! Yay!