Thumbprint Cookies with Jam & Some News To Share!

Tis the season for cookies and homemade baked goods and treats.   We made it through the year and now it’s time to celebrate with delicious culinary delights with the people we care about and get ready to start a whole new year!

I have some fun news to share.   I’ve been accepted as a recipe tester for Leite’s Culinaria.    I enjoy recipe testing…but unlike what I do here on my Teenie Cakes site…some of my own recipes -OR-  modify and change recipes and their ingredients a bit as I please, I’m not at liberty to make those adjustments as a recipe tester for another source.   It’s a different mindset and I’m so excited to be a part of this group!    Because of my technical background, being a tester is not too far from one of my ground-roots passion  as a programmer.   With the recipes I test, I’ll be sharing my notes (like I do with Teenie Notes) and share supporting images/photography.    I’ll also provide a link to the recipe at Leite’s Culinaria.    I won’t be posting the actual recipes I test on my site.

So, to sum all that up, I’ll still be sharing baking, cooking, wine and foodie musings – same as before, except for those recipes I’m testing for Leite’s Culinaria – where I’ll be linking to the recipe I tested.   :)

A couple of weeks ago, I baked up some Thumbprint Cookies for my first testing review.     These little jeweled gems were fun to make and full of nut-buttery goodness.  They can be as colorful as your imagination will take you by the type of jam you select in combination with the type of nuts you use as the base of your thumbprint treats.   It’s a tasty, versatile cookie that can be changed up by using complimentary flavors in the nuts you select and the jams or preserves you pair it with.    Also, this is the type of cookie that the kids, teens – young and old could enjoy helping out with.   While you’re busy with other culinary tasks, they can fill the already baked and imprinted cookies you’ve completed, with jams and filling of their choice.

I jumped at trying these cookies because the original title of the recipe was “Pine Nut Thumbprint Cookies with Fig Jam.” However, using pine nuts may be a challenge for many due to the pine nuts’ current extraordinary expense in the markets. I used walnuts instead and, because of its color and festive appearance and taste, red currant jam as the filling during the testing and then later tried raspberry preserves and apricot jam for the cookies pictured.     I didn’t think about this until after the fact, but if you’re using walnuts as the base, Nutella might also be a nice sweet filling!

• I really liked the end result of the cookie.
• Because the dough is stiff (as noted in the recipe), using a “stand mixer” instead of a hand mixer will make mixing much easier.
• Cream the butter first before adding the sugar, honey and vanilla.
• Scrap the sides of the mixing bowl constantly.
• For more consistent sized cookies, using a small cookie scoop the size of a walnut would be helpful.
• Using 1/4 teaspoon to 1/2 teaspoon of jam is about right. 1/2 teaspoon may be too much.
• Recipe made 56 cookies.
• Check out the recipe and other reviews: Mix-and-Match Thumbprint Cookies on Leite’s Culinaria.

Disclosure
As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program, I received a REAL Butter Holiday Baking kit. Some of those items included in the kit were used to assemble these Thumbprint Cookies.