Fingerprint Cookies

There's a story to these cookies. There's always a story. If you've ever been hand delivered something I've baked, you'd know that the baked goods always come with some sort of story.

These were overbaked because ...
I wanted to ...
I tried, but couldn't ...

These thumbprint cookies are no exception.

They're cookies I tried to make for Christmas. I wanted to top them with strawberries and a white chocolate chip and they'd be Santa hats. Trouble was, strawberries are not in season in December in New York. So I bought frozen strawberries, which retain a lot more moisture than I bargained for, and though they tasted good the cookies were one] soggy and two] a pretty terrible representation of Santa hats.

So, instead, I've resorted to making thumbprint cookies with chocolate chips on top. They taste good and can work for any holiday.

First, you need to assemble your ingredients:

Strawberry jelly, vanilla extract, flour, sugar, two eggs, two sticks of margarine, salt, and chocolate chips [[yes, the bag is half full ... clearly, I'm an optimistic that has made these before]].

Mix together the vanilla extract, sugar, egg yolks, margarine and a pinch of salt [[which was camera shy in my photo above]]. You can use a mixer but I don't with these cookies. I've used a mixer with them before and the dough becomes extra moist. That's probably good for other batters, but not this one. I need this one to be a bit thicker in order to mold later on, and super whipped batter just doesn't work for that.

Mix until everything is combined, place the batter in the fridge, uncovered, for at least twenty minutes. You can watch the clock ... or you can be like me and go to the casino [[it's much more fun than clock watching]].

Take the batter out and mold it into balls.

Contrary to popular believe, size doesn't matter.

I'm a fan of smaller, one-bite cookies, but if you'd rather make them a bit bigger, that's fine too. What does matter is the size of the well. I tend to make mine fingerprint cookies and use my index finger to make the well [[hence why I'm not calling them thumbprint cookies]]. You can use your thumb if you want. A deeper well holds the jelly better, but I kinda like the jelly sitting on top of the cookies more than hidden in a well.

I mean, if I'm going through the work of filling every cookie with a quarter teaspoon of jelly, people should see it.

Let's talk filling for a minute. You should definitely use a spoon. It helps your jelly to be better placed and it doesn't look like a crazy person squeezed jelly all over.

Bake for 12 minutes. I prefer my cookies a little "underbaked." For one thing, they come out whiter, which is much better for the Santa hat look I was going for. Second, cookies will bake for a few more minutes once you remove them from heat. So, if you take them out a bit earlier than you normally would, you'll save yourself from burning them.

Top with white chocolate chips. I'm a perfectionist, so each cookie must get three chips per cookie. No more, no less. And I've been placing the chips up always, although, looking at it, those peaks are driving me crazy, so I think I'm gonna start turning the chips upside down from now on.

I wanted to see if I could pop these back in the oven and melt the chips enough to create a candy coating. It sorta worked, but not really. I had a bunch of ugly ones, but only photographed the heart because, well, that's pretty. And now you can make these for Valentine's Day.

Like I said, works for every holiday.

What you'll need:

• Strawberry jelly
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups or so of flour [[you can really even get away with 2.5 cups]]
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 sticks of margarine
• Pinch of salt
• White chocolate chips

What you'll do:

• Mix together the vanilla extract, flour, sugar, egg yolks, margarine, and salt. Place the dough in the fridge for at least twenty minutes [[longer if you're winning at the casino]].
• Form dough balls.
• Place on parchement paper-lined oven sheet.
• Create a well with your fingers.
• Add jelly to the well [[with a spoon ... I can't stress that enough]].
• Bake for 12 minutes at 350.
• Remove from heat and top with strawberries [[if you're going for the Santa look]] or white chocolate chips [[if you're not]].

This recipe is based on this one from Simply Recipes.