Cookie Recipes

_cookies.md

Cookie Recipes

As promised: my cookie recipes! I used a gluten-free one-for-one substitute instead of regular flour.

• Jam Thumbprints
• Ginger Molasses Cookies
• Peanut Butter Blossoms

blossoms.md

Peanut Butter Blossoms

My older notes say this recipe should make 4½ dozen cookies, which tells me I made them way too large this year (2021) because I only ended up with around 3 dozen. That's not the worst thing, but it's something to keep in mind when getting the Kisses.

Ingredients

• ½ cup shortening
• ½ cup peanut butter
• ½ cup white sugar
• ½ cup (packed) brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ⅛ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1¾ cups all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup white sugar
• enough milk chocolate Hershey's Kisses for all the cookies

Makes ~36 cookies.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, combine the shortening and peanut butter. Beat with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds.
3. Add ½ cup white sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, and baking soda. Beat until combined, scraping in the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in egg, milk, and vanilla until combined and smooth.
4. In multiple additions (I usually do ~3), beat in the flour. The first couple of additions should be easy with the mixer, but during the last one it'll get tough. Instead of sticking to the mixer, swap to a wooden spoon and fold in the remaining flour at that point until the mixture is consistent and no separate flour remains.
5. Roll dough into ~1-inch balls (mine are usually a bit bigger). Roll balls in the white sugar, coating the surface. Place on cookie sheet around 1½-2 inches apart.
6. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until edges are a bit firm and the bottoms are lightly browned.
7. Unwrap enough Kisses for your cookies. (You really want this done before they come out.)
8. Immediately after removing from the oven, set the cookie sheets on a heat-safe surface and press one Kiss into each cookie. If you press them in too fast, the cookies will separate a bit, so don't jam them in there but do be kind of quick about the whole process.
9. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool.

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molasses.md

Ginger Molasses Cookies

These are similar to ginger snaps, but a little different.

Ingredients

• ¾ cup margarine or shortening, melted
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• ¼ cup molasses
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground clove
• ½ teaspoon ground ginger
• ½ cup white sugar

Makes ~36 cookies.

Directions

1. In a medium mixing bowl, mix together the melted margarine, 1 cup sugar, and egg until smooth. Stir in the molasses.
2. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, clove, and ginger. Blend these into the molasses mixture until smooth.
3. Cover and chill dough for 1 hour.
4. Preheat oven to 375ºF. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
5. Roll dough into ~1-inch balls (I make these a little larger). Roll the balls in the white sugar, coating the surface. Place on cookie sheet around 2½-3 inches apart (these spread).
6. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the tops are cracked. Cool on wire cooling racks.

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thumbprints.md

Jam Thumbprints

Jam thumbprints are my favorite holiday cookie!

Ingredients

• 1¾ cups all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon fine salt
• ¾ cup unsalted butter (1½ sticks), softened
• ⅔ cup sugar, plus some extra for rolling
• 1 large egg
• ½ vanilla bean (seeds scraped from pod), or ⅛ teaspoon vanilla bean paste, or 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• ⅓ cup raspberry, cherry, strawberry, or grape jam

Makes ~30 cookies.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together.
3. In a large mixing bowl, whip the butter and sugar with a hand-held mixer unfil fluffy (~5 minutes). Beat in the eggs and vanilla until just combined. Slowly beat in the dry ingredients from step 3 in two additions, mixing until just incorporated and smooth.
4. Scoop the dough into ~1-inch balls (actually I usually make them a little larger). Place on cookie sheet around 1½-2 inches apart from each other. I usually end up with 3 columns of 5 rows of cookies per sheet.
5. Press a thumbprint (or index-finger knuckleprint) into the center of each ball, about half an inch deep. Fill each indentation with some jam. (The jam should about perfectly fill the indentation, with maybe a little bit extra.)
6. Bake cookies until the edges are golden, ~15 minutes. For a more even bake, swap the pans about halfway through.
7. Remove cookies from oven and allow to cool on cookie sheets.

Once baked, you can store them at room temperature (in a sealed container) for around a week — although they probably won't last that long!

Note on the Jam

They've always been called "jam thumbprints" but I actually usually use jelly! Jelly tends to have a more homogeneous texture, which I like because it complements the cookie's texture.

You can, of course, use whatever jam or jelly you like to fill your thumbprints. But after a fair amount of experimenting, I settled on grape. The advantage is that grape jams tend to be very consistent in texture and crisp up very nicely at the edges of the indentation. But experiment and see what you like best!

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