Sable’ and/or Jam Thumbprint Cookies, a 2 in 1 Cookie

My friend Lisa (my next-door neighbor) called me one evening to ask if I’d like to buy a cookbook that her in-law wrote. Now her in-law is someone I knew since she and her husband had a wonderful shop a few blocks away from our office of rich and amazing desserts with quiches etc. But it’s the desserts they were famous for. If the chocolate wasn’t Belgian, it didn’t dare peek its nose into the shop. It was always perfect and they are lovely people. So I eagerly said yes. This cookie is from Secrets from Lori Rapp’s Kitchen and it’s a wonderful cookie, tender and yet crunchy the flavor indescribable even when made with marg and not butter. It’s a basic you will wish to add to your repertoire, all made in the food processor.

Now I’ve made many versions of this type of cookie and yet, this one is in my opinion the best of the lot. It makes quite a lot of cookies depending how big you make them and if you wish, you can form them into logs and freeze part of the dough for use at another time. Since they have no leavening (baking powder or soda) they keep quite well indeed and then, hey presto! you’ve got a cookie ready to roll (pun intended) to bake fresh in your oven.

My add-on to this recipe is that I turn half of the dough into jam pointer finger cookies. My little joke since the thumbprint never turns out well for me.

But this will come so let’s get started. Whip out your food processor and put in the flour, powdered sugar – do not substitute with regular sugar or the texture of the cookie completely changes and it will not come out the same- and cubed marg/butter.

Pulse, pulse, pulse till crumbly. Don’t turn on the processor full force. Just pulses till ready like so:

Again, pulse, pulse, pulse just till dough forms a rough ball. No need to be perfect, just till combined like so:

As you see, my marg musta been a bit warmer than straight outta the fridge so it was a bit smooshy but that’s fine since it’s gonna go in the freezer. However, do NOT let the marg/butter sit out since it’ll be really hard to scrape into a ball. Now scrape all the dough out of the processor and pat into a disk, wrapping in plastic wrap and pop it into the freezer, for 15-20 minutes or the fridge for 35-45 minutes.

Don’t skip the chilling step or the cookies will not turn out properly. I used the freezer this time, I was in a rush. Either way works. K onward.

Your time allotment has passed so preheat the oven to 350 F, divide your dough into 4-6 small pieces and using a silpat or parchment paper, roll into logs. If it’s properly cold, it’ll work beautifully and you won’t need any extra flour and it won’t stick. Like so:

Now see the granulated sugar? You sprinkle heavily on the parchment or silpat and gently roll your logs in the sugar, pressing lightly so it will adhere. This matters since it’ll be what gives an amazing crunch to the cookie. And it’s not too sweet, don’t worry.

Now prepare your baking sheets (rimmed or not, no matter) with parchment paper and using a sharp knife, carefully cut the logs into small rounds and place on baking sheets.

and on the sheets

Now since they have no baking powder or soda, they spread a bit but not as much as regular cookies, so give a bit of space about an inch and a half.

Now if you want regular sable’ cookies, boom you’re done. However, if you want to make thumbprint cookies with jam in the center, keep going. (I like to do half and half, I have fans for both kinds). So take the cookies and using your pointer finger (or thumb if that works for you) make a depression in the middle of each cookie, like a little “well”. Like so:

Okay, from my personal experience (and yes, I play with this stuff endlessly) ya gotta put the jam in to bake with the cookies. Yes, it works to do it afterwards however it remains annoyingly jammy and sticky, also the depression in the center can rise a bit, not worth the aggro. Bake it in with the cookie and the jam “dries out” so the cookies are stackable. Just sayin’. For ease of putting the jam in the cookie center, I took a sandwich bag (if you wanna use a pastry bag, more power to you) and placed in a cup, folding the bag over the cup and putting the jam in the bag, like so:

This keeps jam from getting all over the bag. Then take bag out and squeeze jam to the bottom point, take a scissors and snip off the end to pipe out the jam in a measured fashion. Or you can just take two teaspoons and dollop and scrape off onto center of cookie in the well.

They should look like this:

Now pop in the hot oven, and bake 11-12 minutes and let cool on cookie sheets on wire racks, the tops will stay a light color while the bottoms will brown lightly. No golden brown cookies, this ain’t how it works for this kind. And there you go, sable’ and jam thumbprint cookies.

I actually particularly like to make both since it looks so good on a serving plate not to mention how yummy it is.

Sable’ and/or Jam Thumbprint Cookies, a 2 in 1 Cookie

11 ounces, (320 grams) cold butter/margarine cut into cubes
1 1/3 cups (160 grams) powdered/icing/confectioner’s sugar – no substitutions!
3 1/4 cups(400 grams) flour
1 egg
grated rind of 1 large lemon
granulated sugar for rolling the logs
raspberry or strawberry jam (optional)

Directions:

In a food processor, pulse briefly together the flour, powdered sugar and cubed marg/butter till small crumbs form. Add the egg and the grated rind of the lemon and pulse just till it forms a mass/ball. Immediately scrape all of the dough into a disk (pat it together) and wrap in plastic wrap and pop in fridge for 35-45 minutes or freezer for 15-20 minutes. When chilled, preheat the oven to 350 F.

Take a silpat or piece of parchment paper and divide up the dough into 4-6 pieces and gently roll into logs, patting them into shape with your hands. Take a generous handful of granulated sugar and place on silpat/parchment and roll the logs in this, gently pressing down so sugar adheres to logs. Then with a sharp knife cut each log into 1/2 inch (or so) slices. Take baking sheets and place parchment paper on them and lay the cookies on them about 1 1/2 inches apart. If you want sable’s, they are ready to bake as is. If you want jam thumbprint cookies, press with your finger (I prefer to use my pointer) in the center of the cookie to form a depression in the dough. Either pipe jam in with a sandwich bag, piping bag or two teaspoons into the depression in dough.

Bake either kind of cookie for 11-12 minutes till very light gold and remove and let cool on cookie sheets on wire racks. When cookies cool, they harden for a delightful crunch.