Monday, December 19, 2005

One of my personal favorites



Apricot Cream Cheese Thumbprints
The Ugly Binder, from the internet, Allrecipes I believe

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 (8 ounce) package cream
cheese, softened
2 eggs
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon zest I zest one lemon - which is probably less than 1.5 teaspoons of zest
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup apricot preserves I use seedless rasperry jam too
1/3 cup confectioners' sugar for
decoration


1. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, and cream cheese until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the lemon juice and lemon zest. Combine the flour and baking powder; stir into the cream cheese mixture until just combined. Cover, and chill until firm, about 1 hour. I usually chill it overnight.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Roll tablespoonfuls of dough into balls, and place them 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Using your finger, make an indention in the center of each ball, and fill with 1/2 teaspoon of apricot preserves. I don't use a lot of preserves or jam in mine. I made a small hole with a large wooden spoon handle dipped in flour and I put about 1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon of filling in each cookie.
3. Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are golden. Watch closely - only the bottoms brown - the tops stay pale. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheets for 2 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely. Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar.

The recipe makes a lot so I usually manage to stash a few in the freezer and I can tell you they freeze great (but don't sprinkle them with powdered sugar before you freeze them). The dough can be made ahead and I bet it would freeze really well too. If you're a lover of raw cookie dough, this stuff beats chocolate chip cookie dough any day of the week.

These aren't show-stoppers but they're one of my favorites. I just love the lemon and cream cheese flavor of these cookies. You can use any preserves or jam that you like, just stay away from the all-fruit spreads as they generally don't handle baking well.




2 comments:

Heather said...

you really are outdoing yourself with all of these cookies. However, I love reading the recipes and your thoughts. I am staying tuned to see what is up next!

Nic said...

These look like they turned out perfectly. Beautiful!