Thumbprint Butter Cookies and a Lot of Jam

I've mentioned already that I got a huge 16 Quart Pressure Canner for Christmas. I loves it. It's huge and shiny and I have the ability to can huge amounts of Jam and Fruit Butter in one go. Enter 12lbs of plums that I managed to pick up at a really good price. I spent a lovely Tuesday morning making 7 pints of plum jam and 4 pints of plum butter to be either eaten, sold, or distributed to friends. I love making jam. I find it incredibly relaxing and really fun. And who doesn't adore rows of shiny jars filled with yummy goodies?

I knew that, so soon after the Cranberry Apple Butter, I probably couldn't get away with posting the Jam recipe. Besides, it's jam. It's not really fancy having only three ingredients. So I scratched my head and decided that it was cookie time. Since jam was on my mind, I came to the conclusion that it was more specifically Jam Thumbprint cookie time. So off to the kitchen I merrily went, using dairy products for what feels like the first time in ages.

These Thumbprint cookies are really buttery with a fine crumb. The nice thing about Thumbprint cookies is that you can fill them with whatever you like. You can do jam, or candy, or peanut butter... whatever floats your boat.

I made two kinds here, one with my homemade Plum Jam, and one with some Apricot Preserves that have been hanging out in the fridge since I made pork tenderloin with apricot glaze a while ago. Make sure when you make these that you don't make your dent too deep. You need to leave enough of the cookie base so that when they are cooling the jam doesn't just go through the bottom of the cookie.

Thumbprint Butter Cookies

3/4 Cup Butter (1 1/2 Sticks), softened
1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
1 3/4 Cups All Purpose Flour
2 Egg Yolks
1/2
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
Zest of One Orange
1/4 Cup Preserves

Preheat the oven to 375ºF.
Mix the softened butter with the sugar until well combined, add in the salt and vanilla, then the egg yolks. Grate in the orange zest and then add the flour half a cup or so at a time until you have a nice soft dough. You might not need all the flour.
Roll the dough out into 1 inch balls and then flatten them a little with your palm. Press your thumb in to make an indentation, but be sure to leave a little cookie base at the bottom for stability. Put half a teaspoon or so of jam or preserves in each indentation. I recommend Plum, Apricot and Raspberry.

Bake for 15 minutes until the bottoms are golden. Be careful when removing from the baking sheet as they can fall apart until they cool.

Makes about 24 cookies.