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[Image]Last weekend, I had a few of the oaty orange and cranberry cookies I made for fathers’ day left over and so I took them into work on Monday. They were pounced on and much enjoyed by everyone and I was asked (rather jokingly) if I could bring cookies into work every Monday. Never being one to miss the opportunity to do some baking, I happily agreed. These thumbprint cookies were this weeks offering for the Monday Munchies.

This recipe is originally meant to be turned into small sandwich cookies but I decided to adapt it into thumbprint cookies instead. They are a kind of cookie/cake cross as they remain very soft and tender with quite a crumbly texture and a flavour that reminded me of shortbread. They are incredibly light and remain very pale after baking. The jam adds a boost of flavour and sweetness and adds a nice sticky texture with complements the crumbly/cakey base. I used two jams, an apple and blueberry jam I made last summer and the strawberry jam I made in the previous post.

They are not the most attractive cookies to look, with their slightly cracked surface and jammey splodges and I nearly didn’t take them into work at all, slightly ashamed at their messiness. However, there was no way I could eat the lot myself and so I decided to take them in anyway. I needn’t have worried, they were greeted with great approval and people even came back for seconds (always a good sign). Throughout the morning we kept getting people visiting our office with the words “I hear someone’s been baking.” They also brought back fond memories for one person who exclaimed “these are just like what my grandmother used to bake when I was a girl.” They soon disappeared and to me this only goes to show that despite the huge variety of biscuits and cookies available in the shops these days, nothing beats a bit of home baking. I think I’m going to have to make a bigger batch for next Monday.

Jammy Thumbprint Cookies
Recipe adapted from ‘Rachel’s favourite food’ at home by Rachel Allen
[Image]Ingredients
155g self raising flour
125g corn flour
50g icing sugar
225g butter or margarine
½ tsp vanilla
Jam of your choice

Method
Heat an oven to 160C.
Sift all the dry ingredients into a bowl and add the butter and vanilla.
Cream everything together until combined. At first it may seem too dry but work with it and it will suddenly start to come together. Use your hands to incorporate the last few scraps of flour.
Brake off walnut sized chunks of dough and roll into balls.
Place on an un-greased baking tray and press your thumb into the top of the dough ball to create a hollow.
Add ½ tsp of jam into each of the hollows, but don’t overfill.
Place in the oven and bake for 12-14 minutes, until slightly puffed up. They should remain very pale in colour.
Leave them to cool for only a minute or two before transferring them to a cooling wrack with the help of a palette knife.
They will firm up slightly on cooling but will remain very soft.
Makes 16 cookies.