I really wanted to bake these Thumbprints for Us Big Guys cookies at Christmas, but I ran out of time. I love jam, and any recipe that lets me use jam - better yet, lets me choose my own flavor of jam - has a head start to being on my "favorites" list. The fact that the cookies are a snap to bake just endears them to me even more.
n.o.e.'s notes:
- This recipe was chosen by Mike of Ugly Food for an Ugly Dude, and you can find the recipe on his blog, or, better yet, buy the book ( Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan) for this and hundreds of other fabulous recipes.
- I baked 1/2 recipe.
- Rather than blanching and grinding my own hazelnuts, I was very happy to pull out the package of Bob's Red Mill hazelnut meal/flour, which had been sitting in my cupboard patiently waiting to be used for a recipe. This is essentially finely ground hazelnuts, but since the nuts aren't blanched, you can see dark flecks from the nut skins in my finished cookies.
- My first cookie sheet had cookies that were 15 g each. They spread a lot during cooking, and cracked distressingly. During baking the indentations got much shallower, so when I pulled the cookies out fo the oven I made new "thumbprints" in the hot cookies.
- For the second cookie sheet I used 10 g of cookie dough per cookie. These baked up in 10 minutes flat.
- After a bit of deliberation, I chose two kinds of jam: rhubarb/raspberry, and also three-citrus marmalade, I wanted to use jam that wasn't super sweet because I figured it would be a good foil for the sweet cookie base. At the last minute I dug in the fridge and pulled out a jar of orange-ginger curd with a few spoonfuls left, and used that for some of the cookies.
- To make the filling, the recipe specifies heating the jam in a microwave or on the stove top. It gets quite runny when hot, but as it cools it thickens up and becomes perfect filling. I'd recommend waiting to fill the cookies until the jam has cooled somewhat. The thin hot jam wants to seep into the cracks in the cookies. The curd does not need to get heated.
the verdict:
These cookies were very well received by my tasters. The marmalade was bitter rather than tart, which is great on toast but not quite perfect for this recipe. On the other hand the raspberry-rhubarb jam was nicely tart in flavor and paired well with the sweet, nutty cookies. The very best cookies, however, were the ones with the curd (that was a great jar of curd; thank you, Marshalls!) - the butter nut cookie was the perfect platform (so to speak) to let the bright tartness of the curd take the glory.
20 comments:
Wasn't it amazing how much these spread - how your pinky became a thumbprint....? Love all the jam / marmalade combinations, very festive and I'm sure, delicious. And I love that serving platter detail....
I've just been waiting to see what kind of jams you used for these cookies. I think that all of the jam/marmalade/curd sounds fantastic, but I'm a sucker for ginger, so the curd sounds particularly tasty to me. I'm glad that these were a hit!
I went with a variety of jams as well. These were pretty good!
I knew I'd see some interesting jams here! The raspberry rhubarb sounds like it would be perfect in these. My (rhubarbless) raspberry ones were my favorites of the ones I made. Your cookies look delicious! I didn't think these cookies were all that photogenic, but you made them look like they were!
Yummy. Raspberry-rhubarb jam sounds so good. Great looking cookies and what an assortment.
WOW! How lucky are your tasters to get such an amazing array of fillings... Is there a list I can subscibe to, to eventually become a taster at your house!?
I think I'd love raspberry rhubarb!
They are so pretty! I am sure I would of loved the raspberry rhubarb!
When I saw this recipe had been picked, I immediately thought of you and your collection of jams. I wish I had hazelnut flour -- I would have gone with that. As it was, I used the almond flour I had bought after reading about it on your blog, and some ganache from the freezer (which you told me I could freeze). So this recipe was the resulting from some of the many tips I've picked up from you!
A study in jammies! Delicious, great tips!
I love the way you used a selection of jams :-) So pretty!
I had no idea that Bob make hazelnut meal! I opted for the almond meal but now that I know there's a hazelnut variation I need to find it! Added to the grocery list. I've never had rhubarb jam. Me thinks I need to try that sooner rather than later. :)
-CB
http://iheartfood4thought.com
Hi Nancy! These look great! I still like my own thumbprint recipe better than these, but they were definitely fun :) I used Nutella
I am reaching out to my fellow foodies today to see if they on my Food Bloggers Discussion List. If you are not we would love to have you! Email me amanda AT amandascookin.com
Awesome jams and colors. Lemon curd sounds really good. Naturally, I went with chocolate. Very yummy cookies.
Love that you used different spreads/jams for the variety. They all look heavenly.
I knew you would be all over this recipe featuring jam! I love the idea of lemon curd.
I love the different colors of jam in these--very pretty. I'm lucky enough to be able to by hazelnut meal in my bulk department. Definitely much easier than dealing with whole hazelnuts. =) I'll have to try these with some sort of citrus curd, that sounds yummy.
Love the little jewels on your plate - I think I missed out by not using lemon curd.
I had to re-thumbprint my cookies too. I thought about using lemon curd, but went with raspberry jam instead. Will definitely try curd next time.
Your selection of jams never ceases to amaze me Nancy! The lemon curd was brilliant and if I'd had some on hand I certainly would have tried that combo. Glad these were a hit!
Oops, almost missed this one as I thought I had seen it before, but not so. Look at all those different fillings! I would want to try each and every single one of them...not good for the waistline, so you would have to pick one for me! Very pretty.
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