Ina Garten's Jam Thumbprint Cookies

Happy almost weekend everyone! Do you have any big plans? I do, well not really for the whole weekend but tonight is dinner club on my street.  The theme is "soup" and I can't wait because I'm a huge fan of soup.  Today is also wet, cold and gloomy so it's the perfect night for it.  

Last month for the January dinner club I hosted at my house I made these cookies from The Barefoot Contessa. Ina Garten uses this dough recipe for several different cookies, and what could be easier for the busy holiday season then a multipurpose dough recipe? Wish I'd thought of that when it was still the holiday's.....

The thing I love about this cookie is that they sort of stay the same texture for several days.  They are a soft, crumbly type cookie.  Not cakey or chewy at all, just moist on the inside but not doughy moist.  It's sort of hard to explain but if you've ever had a shortbread cookie you might get what I'm trying to say.  They are delicious!  Buttery goodness with the added texture of the toasted coconut and the sweet jam. I'm a fan for sure. 

If you're going egg-free just replace this egg wash with some milk or even water.  We're just trying to get the coconut to stick.

Roll around in the coconut and squeeze the ball a bit to make it stick.  You wants lots of coconut here.

Use your thumb to make an imprint in the dough ball.

Fill with your favorite jam, I used apricot.

Beautiful aren't they?

The coconut gets all nice and golden brown in the oven and the cookies don't spread out that much in the oven.  No egg is a plus for those who are allergic (if you skip the egg wash step).  I think you'll want to add these to your cookie rotation as well.  So many possibilities, they are a blank slate waiting for your creativity.  Enjoy!

Jam Thumbprint Cookies

Recipe from Ina Garten

Ingredients

• 3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1 egg, beaten with 1 Tbsp water, for egg wash
• 7 ounces sweetened flaked coconut
• Raspberry or Apricot jam

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
2. In the bowl of your stand mixer, using the paddle attachment cream together the butter and sugar until just combined.
3. Add the vanilla.
4. In a medium bowl sift the flour and the salt together.
5. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture into the butter/sugar mixture until a dough forms. Dump the mixture onto a floured surface, shape into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap.
6. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
7. Use your fingers to shape the dough into 1 1/4 inch balls, if you have a food scale they should be about 1 ounce.
8. Dip the balls in the egg wash and then the coconut.
9. Place the balls on an ungreased cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
10. Use your finger or thumb to push a small indentation into the top of each cookie.
11. Fill the indentation with about 1/4 tsp of jam.
12. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the coconut is golden brown.
13. Cool and serve.