Flower Cookies with Jam

I was preparing for Shabbat and was really in the mood for a cookie not so much cake. Ya know when you get the craving for something crunchy? But I wanted a cookie that was really fabulous, something a little special. Okay, I know it’s a pain to roll out dough but for these I made an exception. Totally, utterly worth it. They have a richness to them without it being like a shortbread cookie since the added almond flour gives them this incredible texture and mouthfeel. Personally, I adore raspberry jam but you can use strawberry or apricot, any jam that’s good quality (don’t be tempted to buy something not – it’s what makes the cookie!) and is thick, not runny. Don’t worry if you see there’s no baking powder or soda in the ingredients, that’s correct.

Just in case you’re wondering, my biggest critics (DH & my mom) were really wowed by these cookies. I was happily shocked to see my mom snabble them down and even say, I’ll have a cookie, not the green apple (lovingly chosen by me for her in the shuk). For those who know my mom, that’s astonishing. Don’t worry, she ate the green apple the next day 🙂 . So now that you know the power of the cookies, we will forge ahead with the prep.

Gather your ingredients

Preheat your oven to 350 F/180 C. Then place butter/marg in bowl with sugar.

Beat well together, making sure no lumps remain.

This is important since if you leave lumps of butter or marg in, it creates nasty gritty cookies or weird texture. It’ll take about five minutes and scrape the bowl to make sure the bottom is also incorporated. While the butter-sugar mixture is creaming together, mix in a bowl the almond and regular flour, salt and vanilla sugar (or if using extract, add last after mixing the rest of the ingredients in).

Turn the mixer on low and slowly add the flour mixture into the sugar-butter mixture.

a bit lumpy at first

and finally

Get every bit of the cookie dough out and pat into a circle.

Wrap it and place in fridge for an hour or freezer for half an hour. And we’re gonna roll ’em out. And before you ask why to refrigerate it and skip this step, don’t! It improves not only the texture and flavor of the cookie, it browns better, doesn’t spread out of shape when baked and is much easier to roll out and form into cookies. K.

Your cookie dough has done its thing in the fridge and I divided it in two for ease of cutting them. Now you roll it out about 1/4 inch (6 mm) and I like to do this in a circle shape. I find I can cut out the cookies closer together.

Remove the excess dough and re-roll the scraps and cut out the cookies until you use up the dough. Place on the parchment covered baking sheets. You should have more cookies than room on your sheets. Stash the extras on an additional piece of parchment, ready to roll when your baking sheet’s available.

In the center of each cookie, press a light indentation with your finger. Fill it with a half teaspoon of your jam. Do this with all your cookies and bake the cookies for between 7-9 minutes or until the cookies are light golden brown.

Remove and cool completely on wire racks. This is super important since if not completely cold, the cookies (yes, yes) will crumble as the proverb goes, for real. Once cool, the cookies will be lightly crunchy with a bit of chew to them. Divine, bet ya can’t eat just one!

Flower Cookies with Jam

yields 42 cookies

1 1/4 cups (225 grams) butter/margarine, softened

2/3 cup (134 grams) white sugar

2 1/4 cups (281 grams) all-purpose flour

1 2/3 cups (176 grams) almond flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla sugar or vanilla extract

1 cup (320 grams) good quality raspberry or strawberry or apricot jam

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F/180C. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.

In a large bowl of a mixer, cream butter and sugar together until light and smoothly combined with no lumps. Scrape bottom and sides of mixer bowl. In medium bowl, combine flour and almond flour, salt and vanilla sugar (if using vanilla extract, add as very last ingredient) gradually adding to creamed mixture and mix until fully incorporated and a nice dough has formed. Pat into a disk and wrap. Refrigerate for an hour OR freeze for half an hour.

On a lightly floured mat or parchment paper, roll dough to 1/4 inch (about 6 mm) thickness. I like to roll into a circle for this and then when you cut out the dough, cut close together so you use as much as possible before you must gather and re-roll the scraps and cut out again till used up. Cut with a 2 1/4-inch (57 mm) flower shaped cookie cutter. Place 2 inches (51mm) apart on parchment lined sheets. Make an indentation with your finger in center of each cookie. Place a half teaspoon of jam in the indentation. Bake 7-9 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Remove to wire racks to cool completely. This is important as till cookies are completely cold they are much more delicate and can crumble.

Store in an airtight container or tin.