{TWD} Butter Jam Cookies

[I'm currently away from home, and am posting this automatically. I will try to catch up with reading and commenting about everyone's baking when I return next week. Hmm, or after Christmas!]

At several points in recent weeks, TWD has obliged me to delve into jam. More specifically, into my jam collection. (see the Linzer cookie post, or scroll down for another angle of my jam assemblage)

As an aside on ingredient accumulations, I've previously displayed part of my tea assortment, and at some point I'm sure I'll divulge the details of my sugar stash and flour drawer, both of which have grown exponentially as a result of my recent baking activities. It's come to my attention, however, that I'm woefully lacking in the Pam spray department. I have but one half-empty can of original Pam, whereas it is possible, as Cathy of The Tortefeasor has proven, to have a well-stocked selection of Pam varieties. I'll need to get on that at some point! But for now, it's back to jam.

And after I took this photo I found four more jars of new jam in a drawer! Not to mention the two jars of cider jelly I made for Thanksgiving.

For the rugelach and the linzer sables I had to substitute for the apricot and raspberry jam that I somehow do not own. But for this week's recipe, the Butter Jam Cookies, Dorie has given us free rein to use jam of our choosing.

How to pick a jam? Find one that tastes great and has approximately 1/4 cup remaining! The winner:

The sign of a successful week of baking: an empty jam jar!

cook's notes:

- because my jam was thick, there were a few little clumps of jam after the dough was mixed. These became bits of jam surprise in the cookies.

- I used a small disher that I found in J.D.E.'s baking drawer. I also used her pastry bag tips, bench scraper, and silpat mat. Hmm, the Dorie book that I bake from is hers as well. Thanks, kid! I'm not sure which number disher it is, but I leveled the dough and got exactly 45 cookies. The dough was a little thick and sticky.

- I meant to put the last cookie sheet-full in the fridge before baking, to see if baking chilled cookies would keep them more spherical, but I forgot.


the verdict:

Straight from the oven, they were pillow-y little balls of buttery goodness, reminiscent of snowball cookies, but with a jammy edge instead of a nutty one. I bet they'd be nice dusted with powdered sugar. They were also good at room temperature and after being frozen (and thawed!).

They're not a "sexy" cookie, but appealing and attractive in their own right. Every time I put them out they just disappeared from the plate. There are the cookies you date and the ones you bring home to Mother. These would pass the Mom test!