Get into the Christmas spirit with Thumbprint Cookies!

I'll admit that this may not be the most novel idea in the universe. College student, loves to write and cook, sets up blog as procrastination tool. (Yes, this is finals week, and I should be working on papers and senior seminar research presentations and a whole host of other things...) But here we are.

I started a dining section for my college newspaper (yea, Food & Drank page!) as a way to fund outings for my friends and I to try some new restaurants (Red Stag Supperclub!) and go back to some old favorites (Barbette!), and found I really enjoyed writing about food, and that it was fun getting to be a little more in-the-know about the Twin Cities food scene.

On the home-front, my long suffering roommate, listening to me swear at kitchen gadgets and come up with crazy person shortcuts when I haven't left myself enough time for complicated processes or long wait times ("Simmer for an hour, my ass!"), joked that I should write a book detailing the crazy Amy cooking method.

Going off of that, plus my jealousy of my friend who has a food blog, I decided it was time to throw another collection of ruminations about food, recipes, and restaurants out into the blogosphere. Without further ado, off we go!

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After spending the afternoon bitching about how not into instrumental Christmas songs and Josh Groban I was (Come on, Pandora! Step up your game!) I decided to do some constructive Christmas elfing activities. A couple weeks ago my friend Katie and I decided to throw a cocktail party, and, like the wonderful hostesses we are, decided to make some treats for the occasion. With a little help from Epicurious' excellent collection of cookie recipes, we spent a Thursday night running back and forth between "Jersey Shore" in the family room and a cookie extravaganza in the kitchen. One of my favorites, which I found on the cookie list when I was surfing Epicurious over winter break last year, is their thumbprint trios. In an effort to feed as many hungry college friends as possible, we ditched the trio part (they're supposed to be made as three thumbprint cookies stuck together) and did them old-school, with pretty good results.

Thumbprint Cookies

recipe adapted from Epicurious/Gourmet, Dec 2007

makes about 25 cookies

You'll need:
-1 1/4 cups flour

-1/2 tsp salt

-1 stick butter, softened (they said unsalted; I only had a little less than a full stick of salted and it turned out fine)

-1/2 cup sugar

-1/2 an egg (just mix in a bowl and pour in the half)

-1/2 tsp vanilla extract

-a couple types of jam/jelly/preserves (I went with strawberry, blackberry, and marmalade)

-2 medium mixing bowls, electric mixer (if you want to make life easier on yourself) or a regular mixing spoon, baking pan, saran wrap

This is a two step operation. First, you need to make the dough. In one of your mixing bowl, mix together the flour and the salt. In the other, use the mixer to beat the butter and sugar together on low, until combined and fluffy, about 2 minutes. In several batched, slowly mix in the flour-salt mixture, still on low. Once the dough is formed - don't worry if it's clumpy, it'll still go together - put it onto a piece of saran wrap and roll it into a cylinder about an inch and a half in diameter. They say let it chill, wrapped, for an hour; I say throw it in the freezer for about 20 minutes (an episode of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" on Hulu, anyone?)

Set your oven to 350 and grab the dough from the freezer. Slice off a bit of dough, roll into a ball and do your thumbprint thing! They should be around an inch wide and a half inch deep. Fill with a half spoonful of jam/preserves/whatever. At home, cooking on my parent's dime, I use Sarabeth jams, but here I went with Smuckers and Target brand. Raspberry, strawberry, apricot, marmalade, you can't really go wrong. Put your filled cookies on a greased baking sheet, toss in the oven for 15-20 minutes (my rental house has a 60's style gas oven that always gets things done faster than it should, so check once you get to 10 mins!) and voila, you have some tasty, fruity goodness to brighten up finals, winter blues, or Christmas parties.

Said long suffering roommate, who earlier accused me of turning into a Scrooge after I got a little too picky about a few too many Christmas songs, pronounced them to be good. Here's hoping this buys me a few more song vetoes!