Apricot Almond Thumbprint Cookies

I am starting to realize that many of my cooking endeavors in this blog begin with a reference to my mom, but only because she’s the only person in my family willing to talk about food all the time. With this preface, I will begin this entry with another anecdote.

At T.J.Maxx the other day, my mom insisted we buy a package of apricot almond thumbprint cookies. I strategically convinced her that these cookies would be much more delicious straight from the oven at tea-time. Having never made almond cookies before (I only recently developed a mild liking for nuts), I was happily surprised with my results. The cookies were melt-in-your-mouth good, with both apricot and peach preserves. I really liked the texture of the almonds, but if you prefer smoother cookies, you can add an extra half cup of flour in place of the almonds!

We were a bit low on apricot preserves, so I heated up what we had with more water and dried apricots on the stove until I had a fragrant and fresh batch of apricot preserves ready for the cookies 🙂

Yield: 2 dozen

3/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup almonds ground in food processor (I used about two handfuls, but honestly didn’t measure)

1/2 cup apricot preserves (any fruit will work)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Cream together the butter, white sugar, egg yolks and almond extract. I first creamed the butter, sugar, and extract, and then gently mixed in the egg yolks. Mix in flour slowly until a soft dough forms. Roll dough into 1 inch balls, or simply scoop dough out using a cookie scoop like I did!

Place balls 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Use your finger or an instrument of similar size to make a well in the center of each cookie. Fill the hole with ~1/2 teaspoon of preserves of your choice. I would also love to try these cookies with lemon curd.

I baked the cookies for ~8 minutes, when they were golden brown on the bottom. I almost immediately put the cookies on a cooling rack so they wouldn’t get soggy at the bottom.

… Like eating half of two cookies is any better than eating one whole cookie. 😉

Cookie Craving

A few weekends ago, I baked cookies to my heart’s content. Probably to make up for all of the times I’ve wanted to bake cookies during the school year but been too busy for. Thanks to my mom’s extensive collection of cookbooks, I had the privilege of scouring the Martha Stewart Cookie Cookbook, which is arranged based on cookie texture (genius). I’m looking for a really good chocolate cookie recipe, since I have yet to fall in love with chocolate cookies. I ended up baking her Ginger Chocolate, Chocolate Sugar, Sugar, and Chocolate Black Pepper recipes. Of course, I had to also bake my forever favorites- the Jacques-Torress chocolate chip cookies. For the sugar cookies, I used the recipe for vanilla bean cookies included within the recipe for raspberry cream sandwich cookies.

Chocolate Chip. This recipe incorporates a sprinkling of sea salt on top of each cookie prior to baking, and encourages refrigeration of dough for as long as possible. I love the texture- slightly firm on the outside and chewy and more soft towards the middle.

Sugar. The texture of these cookies was different from any sugar cookie I’ve had before. The edges were a little crispy while the middle was incredibly moist and chewy. I really liked them.

Chocolate Sugar. These are definitely not the right chocolate cookie for me, but they didn’t taste bad. I thought they were really beautiful looking!

Chocolate-Black Pepper. I left the pepper out of this recipe for fear that it would detract from the flavor for some of my cookie eaters. These were really delicious cookies anyway! I thought they were beautiful and they taste good straight out of the oven or after they have cooled and become slightly more crispy.

Chocolate Ginger Cookies. Thanks to the particular taste of another cookie eater, I had to leave the chocolate out of this batch of dough (unfortunate). I adapted the recipe a little bit by adding more butter and less flour, and these ended up being some of the tastiest ginger cookies I’ve eaten! I have made these before with chocolate and they are amazing- definitely try the recipe.

Fortunately, all of these recipes are conveniently posted online, so here are the links:

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

Chocolate-Black Pepper Cookies

Jacques Torres’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sugar Cookies

Chewy Chocolate Ginger Cookies

Start baking! There is something incredibly warming and uplifting about cookies straight out of the oven, and then the next morning all over again for breakfast 🙂 The Martha Stewart website has an amazing collection of her cookie recipes.