Cookies!

What a day. I spent alot (and I do mean ALOT) of time in the kitchen today. And I have to say that three hours of it was a waste. I decided to try a new recipe for cream cheese cut out cookies and if failed. It was a pain in the a** to roll out, sticky dough, and some puffed up and some deflated. I was hoping that I would have nice even disks of yumminess that I could use to sandwich some yummy dulce de leche inbetween. No way. I really didn't think that these were something that I wanted to share with a cookie swap. Not what I want to share as a cookie recipe that I can stand behind and say that I like these! So...... I went to my fellow bloggers for help. I decided to check out the many blogs that I follow and see what they had to offer. I didn't have to go far. My first stop was Clara at Iheartfood4thought. I knew that my friend Clara (can I call you my friend?) would have some good cookies for me. And I found these...... Raspberry Lemon Thumbprint Cookies. And I thought that it was ideal as these were ones that she made to send over seas to a soldier through Operation Baking Gals. I checked the fridge and had all the ingredients, so off I went. These were so easy to make and they taste AWESOME! I ran out of raspberry jam, but had the dulce de leche so I filled in the last ten or so with it and they are delish.

Here is the recipe, courtesy of Emeril Lagasse, as written by Clara.

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup raspberry jam or jelly

1 tablespoon Chambord or kirsch (I didn't use either)

2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 sticks (1 cup) butter, at room temperature

2/3 cup sugar

2 large egg yolks

1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly butter 2 large baking sheets.
In a small bowl, combine the jam and Chambord. Stir to combine.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt and whisk to blend. In a large bowl using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Beat in the egg yolks, lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla. Add the flour mixture in 2 additions and beat just until moist clumps form. Gather the dough together into a ball.

Pinch off the dough to form 1-inch balls. Place on the prepared baking sheets, spacing 1-inch apart. Use your floured index finger or 1/2 teaspoon measuring spoon to create depressions in the center of each ball. Fill each indentation with nearly 1/2 teaspoon of the jam mixture.

Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool completely.

Look yummy eh?

Can you see the lemon zest.

I will definitely make these again....probably sooner than I should!

Take care,

Tania

Love Big, Bake Often