Stained Glass Cookies

the flavor possibilities are basically endless. and delicious…

Cookies with jam in the center are called a lot of things, but I like the name stained glass cookies the best. The best thing about these cookies is they take a simple almond short bread and allow you to play around with a million variations. For this batch, I used apricot peach jam but you could just as easily use another kind. I prefer to use jam that doesn’t have seeds, but if you have a favorite, go ahead and try it.

I tend to think that the secret to any cookie is really well beaten butter. Throw  1 cup softened unsalted butter (2 sticks) into your stand mixer and walk away for at least five minutes. If you don’t have a stand mixer, try to enlist some back up help so you can take it in shifts. Beating butter is easier with a hand mixer if it’s been out on the counter for a while and is pre-softened a bit. This requires planning ahead, which I almost never do. The butter should be pale and look like frosting before you add 1/4 teaspoon salt, 2/3 cup sugar, and 1/2 tsp almond extract. If you’re not a big fan of almond (or if you’re allergic) you can add vanilla or another extract that you are partial to. I think these would be quite tasty with a lavender, coffee, or maple extract. Walk away for a while.

Turn the mixer down to low and add 2 cups all purpose flour, 1/3 cup at a time. Wait until each section is almost totally incorporated before you add more. If you need to at the end, mix by hand.

Preheat your oven to 350F

Pull off a little dough at a time, rolling into small balls using the palms of your hands. You want them to be about an inch across. Set them 1 or 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Using your thumb, make a small indentation in the middle of each cookie. You want there to be a clear crater with walls so the jam doesn’t leak out and burn in your oven (trust me, not fun to clean out). You can rebuild a little wall if you need to.

Fill each crater with your favorite jam. Don’t overfill, or you’ll get a lot of burned jam. Sprinkle the tops of each cookie with some larger grained sugar, if you have it.

Bake for about 18 minutes, trading your cookie sheets top/bottom half way thorough. The edges of the cookies should be lightly browned. Set up some newspaper or wax paper under your cooling racks if you are planning to drizzle something yummy over the cookies.Let cool for about a minute on the baking sheets before transferring to cooling racks.

If you want to drizzle with chocolate, microwave 2 tablespoons heavy cream for about a minute. Add about 1/4 cup chocolate chips and stir to melt. Add more cream if needed.

If you want to drizzle with powdered sugar, combine 3 tablespoons powdered sugar with 1 teaspoon water and 1/2 tsp almond (or other) extract. Add more water if needed.