Tuesdays With Dorie
It's that time again! No, not Christmas! It's time for another Tuesdays With Dorie recipe! I know, another week has passed and Christmas is right around the corner. I mean, literally around the corner! I still can't believe next week is Christmas! In just a few weeks, Tuesdays With Dorie will be a year old. AND, next week it's my turn to choose the recipe from Dorie Greenspan's book, Baking: From My Home To Yours. I'm working on it right now, and no, it's not more Christmas cookies! So, make sure to come back December 23rd for something ultra luscious!
I want to say thanks to Heather of Randomosity and the Girl for choosing this weeks recipe for Buttery Jam Cookies. If you're following along with your own book, you'll find the recipe for Buttery Jam Cookies on page 80 of Dorie's book. If you don't have the book, then by all means, go right over to Heather's blog for it!
Buttery Jam Cookies
I have to say, I wasn't really impressed with the name of these cookies. Plus, with no photo in the book to compare with, I really didn't know how they were gonna turn out. The ingredients were like that of any other Christmas cookie. Butter, sugar, flour, egg, etc. But, there was another ingredient in these cookies that stood out...Jam! After reading the recipe through again, I realized these weren't Thumbprint cookies with a dab of jam in the center. The jam was mixed right into the dough!
Dorie's Recipe for Butter Cookies
Dorie's recipe calls for apricot jam, although any thick jam would do. I didn't have any apricot jam hanging around, so I used raspberry jam. It also called for a bit of ground ginger. Well, I didn't have that either, BUT I did have a piece of fresh gingerroot! I grated up the ginger and because it's pretty potent, I used a little under one teaspoon. Boy, did this smell good! The cookie dough was an odd shade of gray-ish pink. EEEWWW! I guess I was expecting a bright red color after adding red raspberry jam to the dough. But it was tasty, so I kept going.
The dough was thick, so I scooped it up and put it on the cookie sheet in mounds. I thought it would spread more while baking, but it just sat there in a ball. If you're looking for flat cookies, press the dough down a little before baking, if not, you'll have Buttery Jam Cookie Balls!
Decorating the Butter Cookies
The finished cookies were not pretty at all. In fact, they looked rather boring, like something I would definitely hide on the bottom of the cookie tray! I didn't want to trash these cookies, so I decided to dress them up instead. I rolled the raw dough in sugar and made a well in the top of some of the cookies and put a 1/2 teaspoon of jam in them after they were baked. Very pretty!
BEFORE -- BORING!
Next, I drizzled chocolate ganache over the tops of some of the cookies. Even prettier! And still others were rolled in Christmas sprinkles. Ahhh, that's the color I was looking for! Red, green and white Christmas colors!
AFTER -- CUTE!
Thumbs Up? What Does John Think?
I felt much better about the cookies after that. I made them early in the day, so when John got home, the decorated cookies were all done and sitting on the cooling rack looking nice and festive. He thought he was gonna have to wait for me to take photos, but I surprised him by saying, "Would you like to try a few cookies?" HAHA! He was all over that plate in a matter of minutes! He pronounced them delicious. I just think they're cute!
Check this list out! It's a collection of all my favorite Christmas Cookie Recipes!
Too cute - I love the ones with sprinkles all over. And jam in and on the cookie? Jam overload!
Posted by: Caitlin | December 16, 2008 at 07:51 AM
Beautiful cookies! Great pictures!
Save me some!!
Posted by: Liliana | December 16, 2008 at 07:58 AM
Good job decorating them! They look fantastic.
Posted by: Natalie | December 16, 2008 at 09:44 AM
They are cute.
I had considered putting some chocolate drizzle on them, but I didn't.
They were great.
Posted by: chocolatechic | December 16, 2008 at 10:16 AM
Your cookies all look great! You did a fabulous job dressing them up.
Posted by: Kimberly | December 16, 2008 at 01:16 PM
they are so much cuter after decorating :) your thumbprints look so good, i'll definitely either do that or an extra swirl of jam if i make these again!
Posted by: kim | December 16, 2008 at 04:07 PM
I don't see Aunt Mary's Christmas Cookies on here...... Those are my favorite. I have made them a few times, but they are never quite as good as hers were. I think I am going to have to make some this year!
Posted by: Cindy | December 16, 2008 at 10:48 PM
awesome! so many choices! you are too creative.
Posted by: food librarian | December 17, 2008 at 12:25 AM
They were pretty plain but you did an awesome job of dressing them up!
BTW I am excited about your pudding choice as it is a FAVORITE flavor of Grumpy's!
Posted by: HoneyB | December 17, 2008 at 10:21 AM
They look fabulous! Can you come over and cook some for me? I'm so busy cleaning other peoples toilets I can't even wrap my brain around baking some really cute cookies. They look yummy!
Posted by: Debby | December 17, 2008 at 08:28 PM