About the cooking blog...

We enjoy a good meal. 99 out of 100 times, this good meal takes place in our kitchen. We don't eat out very often, and when we do, we're rarely "wow-ed" by the food we get. The following are recipes that have passed through our kitchen. They're not always winners, but we'll tell you if they're not, and what should be changed to make them better. Enjoy!

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Thumb Print Cookies!

This is a pretty easy one… but it’s been a while since anything has hit the blog… so, here we go….

 

Step 1: 3/4 Cup Butter softened. (That’s 1-1/2 sticks)

Step 2: Sugars….

1/4 Cup White sugar,

1/4 Cup Brown Sugar.

Now, here’s where I messed up… the recipe I was following said to cream your 2 sugars with your 2 eggs and butter…. Now, considering that I’ve cooked things before, I should have known that this wasn’t the best idea. So, cream your butter, brown sugar, and white sugar together before adding your eggs.

Like above…

 

Instead… I added the 2 eggs to the (un)mix at this point….

So… This is what you get when you add the eggs before mixing… instead of the creamy sugar and butter mixture…. you get this:

Lumpy goop that’s not all properly incorporated and whatnot… but… we’re gonna roll with it.

Next up, assuming that you’ve mixed everything better than I have, add 1/2 TSP of each: Vanilla, Cinnamon, Salt…. or, if you’re me, you double the amount of the cinnamon and vanilla… cause that’s how I do it.

 

Then flour… 1-3/4 Cups…. add it slowly, with the mixer on low… otherwise, you get a big poof of flour.

At this point, it should start to look like cookie dough.

Finish Mixing things up until you have a smooth dough…..

Now… be prepared, this isn’t like chocolate chip cookie dough or oatmeal cookie dough… it’s kinda thin… and with nothing else in it, it’s SUPER sticky. It stuck to the sides of the bowl.. the spatula couldn’t really even get it to break loose from the edges of the bowl… I suppose that’s how it’s supposed to be…I don’t know, I never made these things before.

Next up, spray down a cookie sheet with some baking spray and drop th dough 1 TBSP at a time down onto the sheet.

Now, dip your thumb in some flour, and give each blob a little push in the center.

BAM. Amazingly, when you press your floured thumb into a ball of dough… it leaves a thumbprint behind… or.. a crater… or depression….

Toss a bit of jam/jelly into each one, then toss the tray into the oven @ 375 degrees for 12-15 minutes. or, until the edges are brown. Let them chill out for a while on a wire rack to allow the boiled jam to get good and sticky as it cools.

We made raspberry, strawberry, and apricot.

 

 

Now… these were ok… I dunno… the cookie part is kind of shortbread-ish… The centers were nice and sticky as they should be… but overall, the cookies were just “Meh”. Not bad, but I’m not rushing out to restock the pantry so I can make them again tomorrow.

In the future, if I decide to make something along these lines again, I think I’d go with a peanut-butter cookie. It just makes more sense. PB&J cookies. These are part sugar cookie, part shortbread… Kinda dry…. a lot more flour taste than anything else… Like I said.. not horrible… but there’s room for improvement.