Who doesn’t love good ol’ pb & j sandwich?
Oh wait, um, ME.
But like most things, once you put it into cookie form just TRY to keep me away.
Yup, you can’t. Juuuuust hand ’em over.
These are an adaptation born of 4 jars of jam passed on to me by my mother-in-law after she had it left from an event and we determined that neither of us really eats jam, with me saying flippantly, 1 week post-partum, “Oh, I’ll bake something with it!”
Well, believe it or not I actually did bake something, and something good to boot. But when you’re functioning on {wait what’s sleep?} you stick with recipes you know and you don’t get too excitable in your alterations. These are a simple adaptation of my much-loved Happy Cookies, a simple peanut butter cookie dressed up this time with a dollop of jam in place of the chocolate kisses. I compacted the directions to make it quicker and easier, skipped rolling the dough in sugar and opted instead for a drizzle of icing over the whole works after. I find rolling balls in sugar very tedious. *leering wink and childish snickers*
And also? I highly recommend keeping your thumbs out of your balls.
By which I mean, I’m calling these thumbprint cookies because that is what one calls such cookies, but I used the top of my almond extract bottle to make those prints. Any good tracker was already on to me, I’m sure. A wine cork also works perfectly!
Will she ever grow up and get her mind out of the gutter? Tune in next week to find out what happens next…
- 1¾ cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ cup butter, softened to room temperature
- ½ cup smooth peanut butter
- ½ cup packed brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 Tbsp milk or cream
- 1 tsp vanilla
- Your favourite jam or jelly
- ICING (optional):
- ¾ - 1 cup icing sugar (aka confectioner's sugar)
- 1-2 Tbsp milk or cream
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- With electric mixer, in large mixing bowl, beat butter, peanut butter and sugars on medium speed until very creamy, 2-3 minutes.
- Meanwhile, in medium mixing bowl, stir together flour, baking powder and soda. Set aside.
- Add egg, milk and vanilla to butter mixture and beat well.
- Gradually mix in flour mixture on low speed until combined.
- Shape dough into 1” balls (if dough is too sticky, refrigerate for 10-20 minutes). Place balls on an ungreased cookie sheet, about 2" apart.
- Bake at 350ºF for 9 minutes, then remove and quickly press down the center of each with your thumb, a wine cork, a small lid (I used my almond extract), or whatever you like. Quickly drop about ½ tsp of jam into each indentation, then return to the oven and bake an additional 3-4 minutes, until edges are just golden. Let sit on cookie sheet for 2-3 minutes before removing to rack to cool completely.
- When cookies are cool, stir together icing sugar and milk to desired consistency and drizzle liberally over the cookies.
- Makes about 3 dozen small cookies.
If you love thumbprint cookies, you need to try these Pecan Pie Thumbprint Cookies next!
I made these for Happy Hour yesterday and the were universally adored. Scrumptious!
Yay, that’s great to hear! I like that Happy Hour involves baking :)
I prefer not to stick my fingers in balls either so I love your little trick! Also, YUM!
Bahaha I love this. You’re cracking me up over here!
And I loveee these cookies!! Thumbprints are one of my absolute favorites to make and as peanut butter and jelly??? Amazing.
Genius idea to use a cork or bottle top for making the impression. We’re not allowed to send peanuts to school, so these will be a great treat for my girls!
So smart to use the wine cork, and these are super special with homemade jam!
Anna, Anna, Anna! Your cookies look great…your humour is showing signs of not enough sleep. Believe me I know. I live in a constant state of not enough sleep. Shortly after you get past baby brain and night feedings, you get menopause brain and wet dreams….in the form of sweat, of course. Okay, like mother, like daughter. What can I say? See what you have to look forward to? No wonder we eat cookies :)
Bahahaha, you make me giggle! And these cookies look SO good. I love pb&j sandwiches, but I bet I’d love these even more. YUM!
LOL! I bought preserves for thumbprint cookies a couple of weeks ago and still haven’t made them. You’re inspiring me!
Phewf, glad my terrible associations didn’t UNinspire you! :)
Oh couldn’t agree more, rolling balls in sugar is ever so tedious. Must be an Anna thing :)