Butter and Sugar Galore: Jam Filled Butter Cookies

Growing up I loved these sugar cookies that my grandma would make. They were big and sweet, and had a little thumbprint filled with jam right in the middle. I would nibble around the edge of the cookie closer and closer until I got to the delicious jammy part right at the end.

I tried to recreate those cookies this week, but they didn't come out quite the way I was expecting. Before being baked they were soft and round, like in the picture below, and I was expecting them to come out kind of the same, judging by the pictures on the recipe I found. But instead they came out flat and thin, like in the picture above. They still taste really good though--they're so buttery that they literally melt in your mouth.

They were also a little fragile though, they kept crumbling away if you tried to pick them up by the edges, so you had to kind of balance the cookie on your palm while nibbling at them. I solved that, however, by keeping them in the refrigerator--which was really an excellent decision I think, because they were still flaky and buttery, but much sturdier, and the central jam part tasted better cold. I think that the next time I make these though I'll try one whole egg instead of 2 egg yolks, and see if they come out a little less crumbly.

I had fully intended to do half strawberry and half grape cookies, but when I opened the jar of grape jelly it had lots of little white and green lumps, so I decided to chuck that, and stick with strawberry!! They are really easy to make though--with only a few ingredients, and the thumb-printing, jelly-squeezing part is kind of fun. I don't recommend telling people how much butter is in them though, you wouldn't want people to feel guilty about eating such delicious treats!

Jam Filled Butter Cookies

adapted from allrecipes.com

3/4 cup butter (either use salted butter, or add about 1/4 teaspoon salt if using unsalted butter)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 egg yolks

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup fruit preserves/jam

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla. Mix in the flour a little bit at a time (and the salt, if using) until a soft dough forms. Roll dough into one inch balls; if the dough is too soft to work with at first refrigerate it for 15 to 20 minutes. Place the balls two inches apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. Use your thumb (or maybe a spoon, I tried that though, and the thumb worked way better) to make a well in the center of each cookie.

Fill a ziploc sandwich bag with the jam, and squeeze all the jam into one corner, making sure to let all the air out of the bag. Snip the very tip off the corner of the bag, and use the bag to pipe the jam into the well in the center of each cookie.

Bake for 8-10 minutes at 375 degrees or until the cookies are golden brown around the edges. Let them cool on the pan for several minutes before attempting to move them, they're very fragile! Remove them to wire racks to cool completely, then store refrigerated in an airtight container. Makes about 40 cookies.


Look, this one came out as a heart! Noel and I split it! Awww....

Saved by the Rice Krispie Treat

A year or two ago I bought some adorable Easter cookie cutters...bunnies, carrots, and the like. The problem is that now I feel like I have to make butter cookies every Easter, so that the cookie cutters don't go to waste. But since I already make butter cookies at Christmas and Valentine's Day, by Easter I'm pretty much ready for a change.

For the last few weeks I've been eyeballing the cookie cutters in frustration, trying to ignore the little voice telling me that I needed to make cookies in order to use them. Last weekend we were having an egg decorating party on Saturday morning, so I figured I should make something dessert-like, and I felt like the cookie cutters were going to mock me if I didn't use them. (Ok, maybe my imagination was running away with me, but I swear they were kind of staring at me from the corner of the counter where they'd been sitting.)

I thought about gingerbread, but that seemed weird and un-seasonal. Jello-jigglers crossed my mind, but while I was reading the back of a jello box to figure out how many packets of jello I needed I accidentally caught a pan of oil on fire and almost burned my house down, so I was too scarred by the memory to mess with the jello. In desperation I started digging through the recesses of my pantry--and found two bags of marshmallows leftover from my Rocky Road Chex Mix extravaganza at Christmas time. In a stroke of genius I decided that bunny shaped Rice Krispie treats it would be--much to my eventual delight, because they were a huge hit!

The marshmallow bag said to use more butter and marshmallows and less rice krispies, and the rice krispie box said to use more cereal and less marshmallows; not surprising I guess since they're each trying to market their own product. Anyway, I combined the two recipes, spread the mixture into a cookie sheet instead of a 9x13 pan, and cut away. I ended up with 20 adorable bunnies, plus a small tupperware full of the delicious scrap bits that the cookie cutter left behind, which Noel and I ate while sitting on the kitchen counter later that night. The rice krispie treats were perfect--sticky, sweet, and a little bit crunchy, plus adorable. And really, who doesn't like have something bunny shaped to bite the ears off of?

After the egg party I made another batch to take to Easter dinner the next day, and then later in the week I made another batch for my work potluck. The last batch was less successful, for three reasons really, (1) I used strawberry flavored marshmallows--no good, stick to the original! (2) I forgot that marshmallows aren't vegetarian, so a lot of people couldn't eat them, and (3) they were competing with homemade angel food cake. Not gonna lie, I totally ate the angel food cake instead of my own cookies!

But, if the competition isn't too stiff, these are the perfect little cookies; both easy and adorable, which is the best of both worlds I think.


Rice Krispie Treat Shapes
courtesy of the cereal box and the marshmallow bag
4 tablespoons butter
10 oz marshmallows (4 1/4 cups of the little guys, 40 individual bigger ones)
6 cups crispy rice cereal

In a large saucepan melt the butter over low heat, and stir in the marshmallows until they're melted and smooth. Meanwhile spray a 14x16 inch baking sheet with cooking spray, and spray a large spatula or wooden spoon (or wait and spray your hands). Once the marshmallows and butter have melted together, remove the pan from the heat, and stir in the rice krispies until they're thoroughly coated. Spread the mixture out in the pan using either a greased spatula, or your greased palms. It's kind of hard to spread the mixture out in a pan that big, so you may have to work at it for a minute to get it all evenly spread out. Once it's evenly spread out, refrigerate the pan for about 10 minutes or until the mixture is lightly set.

Spray a cookie cutter with cooking spray, and cut the shapes out, pressing firmly. With bunnies I got 20, with flowers 22, so you should get between 20-24 I'd say, depending on the size of your cookie cutter. Place the cookies between layers of parchment paper in an airtight container, and let them sit another hour or two to harden a little more, unless of course you like to eat them while they're all gooey and soft. And hey, feel free to eat all the scraps yourself...your family and/or guests will never have to know...

Sex and Intrigue: Circa 1984

Shooting in the Dark by Carolyn Hougan


This is the second Carolyn Hougan book I've read in the last few months--again a reprint of one of her books from the early 1980s. I think that's what I liked about this book, looking back with a 25 year perspective makes you realize how right she was in a lot of ways. The book tells the story of Claire Brooks, whose husband of 8 years announced he was leaving her as she got ready to go to the dentist. Claire can't face him, so on a whim she buys a plane ticket to Amsterdam. Unbeknownst to Claire, international intrigue is centering on Amsterdam, where a shadowy group of spooks, bankers, and heads of state called Circle Group is meeting to plot the assassination of the Shah.

Claire is stunned by her husband's betrayal, and spends her time drinking too much, and having a sudden affair with a reporter named John Stenner. What neither she nor John Stenner realizes is that life is about to get even more complicated. Stenner is slipped a tape that includes a secretly taped session of the Circle Group meeting, and he and Claire are thrown into a race for their lives as they try and figure out who made the tape and why.

The references in the book are really quite funny--all the Dutch characters keep talking about how inept Carter is and how the USA isn't going to be the dominant world power anymore, and the spy and reporter characters all bemoan how Aghanistan and Iran are not going well, and how it looks like the Soviets are winning. Given some of the countries in the news lately, it seems like Carolyn Hougan was a bit prophetical.

The surprisingly thing about this book is that it's written by a woman. It kind of reminds me of a Tom Clancy book, except that Claire Brooks is obviously not a well-trained spook or anything. It's like Tom Clancy meets chick lit or something--torture, guns, sex, too much alchohol, one night stands, misery over the betrayal of a husband, it's a bit of weird combination, but surprisingly believable. Claire's dazed attempts to figure out who she is without her husband while protecting herself and John Stenner from the mysterious baddies who are after them, actually doesn't seem all that far-fetched. It was a quick, enjoyable read, and if you like Cold War era intrigue I'd definitely recommend it.

Snacker Snocker Snucker: Snickerdoodles!

On Saturday night we had tickets to the symphony for "Bugs Bunny on Broadway"--a concert where they show Bugs Bunny cartoons on a big screen and the symphony plays the score of the cartoon. It was SO much fun, and I went around all day Sunday singing, "What's up, Doc?" I think maybe this is what inspired me to make Snickerdoodles on Sunday evening, some sort of connection between a childhood pleasure, the Saturday morning cartoons, and a favorite childhood taste, the one, the only, the snickerdoodle!

But before I share my snackable sneak-between-meals snickerdoodle recipe I have to digress for a minute, and ponder the name of the snickerdoodle. At some point in the era of cookie prehistory did someone snicker at the squiggly lines on the tops of the cookies created by the cracking sugar crust? Or did someone just doodle away one day and produce the recipe, which made someone else snicker, because after all, who puts cream of tartar in a cookie? Or because the cookies just taste so good that people snicker joyfully as they eat them?

My encyclopedia of word and phrase origins tells me that 'snicker' is a word meaning 'to laugh', originally from an Essex dialect of English, but sadly there is no entry for snickerdoodle. According to wikipedia though, it might be a corruption of the German word Schneckennudeln, which means "snail dumpling". Since "snail dumpling" sounds like a horrifying creation to me, I think I'll stick with my own etymological ideas.



These cookies are pretty standard as far as snickerdoodles go, I found three different recipes on allrecipes.com that were actually all the same, so I decided it sounded like a nice safe bet. You mix up the dough, which is soft and a little fluffy, roll the dough into little balls, and then the roll the little balls in cinnamon sugar until they're brown and sparkly. After a few minutes in the oven they come out puffy and pale, but after a minute or so out of the oven they deflate and turn a little bit golden brown, leaving a thin, chewy, melt-in-your mouth cookie with the distinctive tang of tartar balanced by the spiciness of cinnamon and the sweetness of sugar. I think maybe it's the faint tartar aftertaste that lingers in your mouth that makes it so impossible to eat just one cookie, because you keep wanting to recreate that irresistible taste in your mouth!

Snickerdoodles
from allrecipes.com

1 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt

2-3 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 375. In a small bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt, and set aside. Cream together the shortening and sugar until well-blended, then beat in the eggs. Add the flour mixture to the shortening and egg mixture in small increments until all ingredients are well-incorporated and the dough is smooth and fluffy. In a small, steep-sided bowl combine the cinnamon and remaining sugar. Roll small pieces of dough between your palms until they make walnut sized balls, then roll the balls in the cinnamon sugar. Place the cookies at least an inch apart on a parchment lined baking sheet, and bake for 7-8 minutes at 375 degrees F. The cookies will be quite puffy and still pale in color when you remove them from the oven. Let them sit on the pan for another minute or two until they deflate, then remove them to wire racks to cool completely.

Once they're cool, store them in an airtight container, preferably with a slice of bread or apple to keep them moist. Keep changing the bread or apple daily, and the cookies should last for up to a week, unless of course you eat a dozen or two while you're baking them, which is easy to do when they're warm and fragrant! This recipe makes about 65-70 cookies depending on the exact size though, so you should have at least a few left.