almond thumbprint cookies with jam

I’m in upstate New York for the month of July with extended family, and one of the joys of that (aside from cooler weather, doggie cuddles, and lake swimming!) is staying just 45 minutes from my grandmother, Cynthia, who is now 102! She’s currently in assisted living, but with both of us vaccinated, I’ve been able to visit. Last week I couldn’t see her because of a virtual class during daylight hours, so I’m going to see her today, and I tried a new recipe for jam thumbprint cookies to brighten up a rainy week.

 

Almond Thumbprint Cookies with Jam (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

 

INGREDEINTS

 

4 ounces almonds (any kind), ground, OR almond meal
2/3 cup sugar, plus extra 1/3 cup, for rolling dough
1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 stick (1/2 cup or 4 oz) unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 generous teaspoon vanilla extract
Jam, any kind (I made basic strawberry jam over Memorial Day, so I used that)

 

DIRECTIONS

 

If using whole or chopped almonds, grind them into a fine powder (I do this either in a food processor or a coffee grinder). Add almond meal/ground almonds, sugar, flour, and salt to a bowl and whisk to combine. Stir in butter, egg, and vanilla extract until incorporated. Scoop and mold dough into a large ball, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes.

 

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Move ball of dough back to countertop and uncover. Scoop tablespoon-sized portions of dough into your hand, squeeze to help the dough adhere, and roll between your palms into a smooth ball. Drop each ball of dough into small bowl filled with the remaining sugar. Rotate/roll until dough is coated on all sides, and place on one of the baking sheets. Because you’ll be chilling the dough one more time before baking, you don’t need to worry about spacing at this point. Discard remaining sugar.

 

 

Make an indentation in center of each ball using your thumb, index finger, or the rounded end of a wooden spoon. If dough cracks, let it warm a little more, or nudge it back into place. Return the cookies to the refrigerator (20-25 minutes) or freezer (10 minutes) to chill.

 

 

Move racks to the middle of your oven and preheat to 350°F. Take cookies out of the fridge or freezer and fill with jam up to the edges of the indentation. If jam is too dense or stiff, put 2-3 tablespoons in a small bowl in the microwave for 15 seconds. Warm jam should be easier to work with! Space filled cookies 2 inches apart, moving some to the second baking sheet.

 

Bake 11-12 minutes. Let cookies cool on baking sheets. Makes 24-36 cookies, depending on size.

 

After never making them before in my life, I’ve made jam thumbprint cookies twice this summer. The first time I made them, I used a recipe that called for all flour and additional corn starch. While they looked fabulous and disappeared quickly at the party I took them to, I didn’t love the taste of so much starch. Naturally, I went looking for an alternative. Deb of Smitten Kitchen posts reliably good recipes, so I adapted hers a bit for my own needs. The result may be more rustic and less perfect, but they taste MUCH better than my first effort, and they melt in your mouth. If you don’t mind cracks here and there in your cookies, these will be a hit! They’re still visually stunning, and they taste delicious!

 

This recipe post is part of Weekend Cooking, hosted by Marg of The Intrepid Reader. Learn more about Weekend Cooking here.

blueberry almond tart

I live just across the river from Washington, DC. You may have heard that we had record-breaking weather last weekend? 2+ feet of snow. While we were snowed in I made bagels from scratch, and I had plans to make a blueberry almond tart, but time got away from me (read: I just wasn’t motivated enough). Last night I finally got my act together and baked before the blueberries spoiled. Yay!

Blueberry Almond Tart (crust recipe from King Arthur Flour, filling from Hummingbird High)

INGREDIENTS

Crust

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) butter, room temperature

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup almond meal (I buy mine at Trader Joe’s)

Tart filling

6 oz. (about 2/3 cup) sour cream

1/3 cup heavy cream

1 large egg

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 teaspoon almond extract

10 ounces (1 dry pint) fresh blueberries, rinsed and dried

DIRECTIONS

Crust

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a 9” tart pan liberally with cooking spray, and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the sugar, butter, salt, and extracts. Add the flour and almond meal, stirring to make crumbs that cling together when squeezed.

Dump the dough out into the prepared tart pan, and press the crumbs into the bottom and up the sides with your fingers.  Once the dough looks uniform, prick all over with a fork.  Freeze the crust for 15 minutes, then put it in the oven to bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

Tart

Increase the oven temperature to 400°F.  Place the cooled crust on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and set aside.

Whisk together the sour cream, heavy cream, egg, sugar, and almond extract until well combined.

Pour the filling into the prepared crust. Evenly distribute the blueberries over the custard. If too many berries remain at the surface, gently push them into the filling so that you have just one layer of blueberries at the top.

Bake until the filling has set and the crust is golden, about 25 minutes. The custard is set when its center wobbles just a bit, while the outside remains puffed up and set.

Cool on a wire rack. Serve warm, or chilled from the refrigerator.

It looks fantastic – so the question is, does the taste measure up? It is delicious. And, if we’re being honest, maybe a smidgen too sweet for my taste. If I were to make it again, I’d probably take the sugar in the crust down to 1/3 cup, and double (or times and a half) the amount of custard filling so that the sweetness of the crust is offset a bit more by the creaminess of the tart.

But what about flavors?!  Actually, the almond comes through really well, but not too strong – that part is perfect.  And the berries were just the right amount sweet. Baked blueberries pop open on your tongue like a surprise, you know?  So the flavors were great.  Plus, this is a freaking beautiful food item.  Looks like it belongs in a display case, you know?  So I’ll definitely be breaking out the recipe again, possibly with other berry variations.

Recommended for: a sweet afternoon treat to pair with coffee, as a beautiful (and fancy!) finish to a home-cooked meal, or for any occasion where you want to impress your guests.

Interested in other food-related posts? Check out Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking!

strawberry hamantaschen (filled cookies)

I’ve had Deb Perelman’s The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook out from the library for… oh, about 6 weeks now?  And due to new job-related busyness, (yes, I got a new job and I LURVVVVE it!) I hadn’t really sat down to read it until today. I promptly fell in love with Deb’s voice and recipes and OCD/obsessive-ness.  I wanted to try one of her recipes (I’ve made Smitten Kitchen recipes before, but pulled those from her blog) today, so I walked to the grocery store full of fervor to buy rhubarb for Rhubarb Hamantaschen cookies.  My grocery store didn’t have rhubarb!  I mean, I know it’s been cold this year, but rhubarb is one of the first things to appear in springtime.  So I bought strawberries instead, because they were on sale. 

Strawberry Hamantaschen (cookie recipe modified from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook)

INGREDIENTS

Filling

3 cups strawberries, about 1 1/4 lbs

2/3 cup sugar

Cookie

1/2 cup almond meal

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, chilled, cut into small pieces

1 egg + 1 egg white

1/8 teaspoon almond extract

DIRECTIONS

To make filling

Remove strawberry stems, then chop into quarters.  You want about 1/2-inch segments.  Place in a medium saucepan with sugar, stir to combine, turn heat to medium low, cover, and cook for 15 minutes.  You will not need to keep stirring at this stage, but KEEP AN EYE on the saucepan – the strawberry sugar may want to bubble over (this happened to me…).  Increase heat to medium, uncover, and cook for another 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Poor compote out onto a large plate to cool.

To make cookie dough

Mix almond meal, flour, sugar and salt together in a large bowl.  Using a pastry cutter or two forks, work butter into flour until it resembles cornmeal (I just want to confess that at this stage I ALWAYS give up and end up working the mixture with my fingers. I am an impatient mess).  Add egg, egg white and extract, and combine the dough with a wooden spoon (or your hands).  Knead dough until mixture is uniform (either in the bowl or out on your countertop).  Divide dough into quarters.

Form the cookies

Place one quarter of the dough on a well-floured surface, and flour the top generously as well.  Roll the dough to 1/8-inch thickness, and cut out circles with a round cookie cutter or wine glass.  Place 1 teaspoon of strawberry filling in the center of each dough circle.  Fold edges up in three places to form a triangular cookie and gently pinch seams together to form corners.  Transfer cookies to a parchment-lined baking sheet and place entire tray in the freezer for 30 minutes before baking.  Repeat with remaining dough.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Bake cookies for 15-17 minutes, until golden at edges.  Remove from oven and transfer to racks to cool.  Makes 3 dozen cookies.

Note: Be rigorous in creating those corners (almost fold over the edges) so that your cookies don’t ‘unstick’ themselves and lay out flat while baking.  Also, having tried both freezer & fridge due to storage issues, I command you to put your trays in the freezer, as per the recipe.

These cookies are great – very almond-y and fruity at the same time, with crisp shells and gooey filling.  I like them!  And now I’m curious about the rhubarb version…

Recommended for: a special occasion cookie with colorful flair, and a tasty treat for the baker who is looking to branch out from that old standard chocolate.

cherry and plum crumble

One of the best things about summer is the abundance and availability of fresh local fruit.  I went a little overboard at the grocery store last week, and as a result I had a large handful of cherries and several plums just about to turn from ripe to… done.  I did my usual internet recipe search/magic trick and turned up a recipe for individual cherry and plum crumbles.  They looked too cute to believe, and the result was pretty scrumptious (especially accompanied by vanilla ice cream!).

Cherry and Plum Crumble (adapted from this Tartelette recipe)

INGREDIENTS

Fruit

5 plums, pitted and diced

1 cup fresh cherries, halved and pitted

1/4 cup honey

zest of one lime

juice of one lime (use the same one for both)

2 tablespoons cornstarch

Crumble topping

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup almond flour/almond meal

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

6 tablespoons butter, cold

DIRECTIONS

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the fruits with the honey, lime zest and juice and cornstarch. Toss with your hands to coat the fruits evenly. Divide between 5 or 6 ramekins and place those on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil (the fruits may cause a small spill while baking). Set the ramekins aside while your prepare the topping.

In a medium bowl, toss together the sugar, almond meal and spices. Cut the cold butter into small pieces and add to the sugar and flour mixture.  Work together with your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Divide the topping evenly on top of the fruit, and place in the preheated oven.

Bake for 20-30 minutes or until the topping is looks done.  Let cool at least 10 minutes before serving.

Note: While I enjoyed this iteration of the recipe, if I made it again I’d add half again as much almond meal and leave out some of the brown sugar.  The fruit is plenty sweet on its own.  I also might use only one spice (cinnamon) – the nutmeg/lime combo wasn’t unpleasant, but not my favorite.

I served these little desserts to a couple of friends who came over to hang out at the pool, and they raved about the taste.  Other combinations and experimentation to follow, I’m sure!

Recommended for: a summery dessert, a great way to use up that fruit that is on the edge of going bad, and a delicious treat after a day out in the sun.

Interested in other food-related posts?  Check out Beth Fish Reads’ Weekend Cooking!