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Hi Everyone,

Day # 2 of Holiday Baking

Today I am featuring one of my Favorite Christmas Cookies. The perfect addition to any cookie tray.

Raspberry Almond Shortbread Thumbprint Cookies

Prep Time: 30 minutes- Cook Time: 30 minutes- Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes

Servings: 36 cookies

Ingredients:

• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 cups + 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour*
• 1 cup unsalted butter, cold and diced into 1 Tbsp. pieces
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp almond extract **
• 1/2 cup raspberry jam, seedless if preferred
• **I substituted amaretto for the almond extract and it was 2 tbsp. of amaretto for every ½ tsp of extract.

*To measure flour, scoop with a measuring cup and level with a butter knife. Don’t whisk or sift first and don’t spoon into the measuring cup.

Glaze (optional)

• 1 cup (124g) powdered sugar
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 2 – 4 tsp water

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl whisk together flour and salt, set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, blend together butter and sugar until combined (it will take a minute or two since the butter is cold. If you don’t have a paddle attachment that constantly scrapes bowl, then occasionally stop mixer and scrape down sides and bottom of bowl). Mix in almond extract then add in flour blend until mixture comes together (it will take a bit of mixing since the butter is cold, so be patient, it will seem really dry at first).
3. Shape dough into 1-inch balls, about 1 Tbsp each, and place 2-inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Make a small indentation with thumb or forefinger or cork in each cookie (large enough to fit 1/4 – 1/2 tsp of jam). Fill each with 1/4 – 1/2 tsp jam. Chill in refrigerator 20 minutes (or freezer for 10 minutes). Bake in preheated oven 14 – 18 minutes.
4. Cool several minutes on baking sheet then transfer to a wire rack to cool (at this point you can add a little more jam if you’d like to, it just won’t be set like the other is). Drizzle cookies with glaze when when cool. Store cookies in an airtight container.
5. For the glaze:
6. Whisk all glaze ingredients together in a small mixing bowl, adding enough water to reach desired consistency. Pour or spoon mixture into a sandwich size resealable bag, cut a small tip from one corner and drizzle over cookies.
7. Recipe source: adapted from both Land O Lakesand MarcieJ’s review on allrecipes.com

Until my next post, make every day a celebration!

Stay well, 

Diane

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