Blackberry Lemon Thumbprint Cookies

Of all the Christmas cookies I’ve baked in the last week, this is the one that got Bill’s attention.  I have baked them every year since his mother introduced me to them many years ago.  He adores them and so do I! 

Thumbprint cookies are an old standard that are filled with great ingredients that people like.  Make them with your favorite jam or jelly, with just frosting and no jam, with nuts or without, or drizzled with chocolate! However you like them!  They’re all great! 

I added a little blackberry brandy to the blackberry jam and lemon zest to the dough for extra flavoring.  It’s a great mix of flavors that turns out a delicious cookie with the well being filled with jam and frosting.   Blackberry thumbprint cookies are really a huge hit in our house and love at first bite!

Blackberry Lemon Thumbprint Cookies

Ingredients:

½ cup blackberry jam

1 tablespoon Blackberry Brandy

2¼ cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

2 sticks butter, at room temperature

2/3 cups sugar

2 eggs, separating yolks from whites

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon lemon zest

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup pecans, chopped fine

1 can your favorite frosting

Few drops of red food coloring

Few drops of green food coloring

Method:

Preheat oven 350 degrees.

Lightly butter baking sheets or line with Silpat mats or parchment paper.

In small bowl, combine jam and brandy well. Set aside.

In medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt, whisking to blend.

In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Beat in egg yolks, lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla.

Add the flour in 2 additions and beat until the dough forms a clump.

Gather dough into a ball.

Pinch off the dough and make a 1-inch ball.

In a small bowl, with a fork, gently beat egg whites until foamy.

Dip a dough ball into the egg whites, shaking off the excess.

Place pecans in a small bowl and gently roll cookie in the nuts, coating it completely.

Do the same with the remaining dough. 

Place on baking sheet one inch apart.

Using your thumb, make a well in the center of each ball.

Fill each well with approximately ½ teaspoon of the jam mixture.

Bake until golden and firm to the touch, about 15-18 minutes.

Transfer cookies to wire racks to cool.

Mix half of the frosting with 2-3 drops of red food coloring in a small bowl and the remaining frosting with 2-3 drops of green food coloring in another small bowl.

When cookies are completely cool, apply a dab of frosting to each.

Let frosting dry some before storing (I do over-night).

Store between layers of waxed or parchment paper.

Makes 4 dozen

Do these have you drooling yet?

They would be a great colorful addition to your Christmas cookie tray!

Be sure to enter my CSN Giveaway for a $35 gift certificate that I posted on December 17^th!

Also, check out my friend, Linda’s blog, at My Kind of Cooking for her great recipes and cookbook giveaway!

My Blackberry Buckle and So Forth

There are grunts, cobblers, crumbles, crisps, pandowdy’s, slumps, clafouti’s, betty’s and then there’s my favorite ~ buckles.

All of the above always confuse me so here’s the lowdown:

Grunt:  It is a simple, dumpling-like fruit dessert that is cooked on the stove-top.  Large dollops of biscuit dough are dropped on top of the fruit; the dough is steam cooked through the escaping steam of the fruit.  The name supposedly comes from the sound the fruit makes as it stews.

Slump:  It’s the same as grunt.

Cobbler:  A cobbler is a deep-dish fruit dessert with the fruit filling in the bottom of the dish and topped with thick biscuit dough, usually dropped in spoonfuls.

Crisp:  This dessert is baked with the fruit on the bottom and having a sweet crunchy topping which is crumbled over the top.  The crumb topping can be made with flour, nuts, breadcrumbs, graham cracker or cookie crumbs, or even cereal and baked until the top is brown and crunchy.  Crisps are the homey, American version of the British crumbles. 

Crumble:  Similar to a crisp except that it is topped with a crumbly pastry mixture.  The dish is of British origin and is not as rich as a crisp.   

Pandowdy:  This is a layer of sweetened fruit with a thick top crust, usually made with piecrust.  As the dessert bakes and the crust hardens, the crust is pushed and broken into the fruit with a fork, which allows the juices of the baking fruit to partially cover the crust.  The name supposedly refers to its rumpled or “dowdy” appearance after baking.  It’s generally made with apples; hence, apple pandowdy.

Clafouti:  This is a French dessert in which the fruit is topped with either a pudding or cake topping.  It’s often considered a baked pudding.  It’s easy to make, has a great presentation and is excellent for a quickie dessert for a dinner party.  It’s perfect for cherries and is usually served warm.

Betty:  This dessert goes back to colonial days and is usually known as Apple Brown Betty.  It’s made with brown sugar and baked between layers of buttered bread crumbs with an assortment of spices such as nutmeg or cinnamon.

Buckle:  A cake layer is on the bottom of the pan, the berries are spread over this and the top layer is a crumble mixture.  The result is a rich, dense cake with a moist crumb which can be compared to coffee cake.  It’s an excellent summer dessert, served hot or cold, dressed with drizzles of sauce, ice cream or plain.  The origin is mysterious ~ it may be colonial.

Like I said earlier, buckle is my favorite and especially if it’s made with blackberries!  This recipe for blackberry buckle is great.  The flavor with the combined cake layer, fruit and topping is to die for!  It keeps very well. 

The day after it is baked, heat a slice in the micro for a few seconds and it is a HEAVENLY thing when slightly warm with maybe a scoop of ice cream or a dab of butter on it as Bill does.  I like it just all by itself.  The aroma while baking is outstanding ~ it is truly delicious!

 Look at those berries ~ almost ready to bake...

Ready for the oven...

Voila!

Blackberry Buckle

Cake ingredients:

1 cup flour

1½ teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup butter

½ cup sugar

1 egg

5 tablespoons milk

2 tablespoons blackberry brandy

2 teaspoons vanilla

2½ cups fresh or frozen blackberries

Method:

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.

In a mixer bowl, beat together butter and sugar until fluffy and light with an electric mixer on medium speed.

Add egg.  Beat until smooth.

Combine milk, blackberry brandy and vanilla.

Add dry ingredients and milk alternately to the batter, beating at low speed after each addition.

Pour batter into a greased and floured 1½ quart baking dish.

Spoon berries evenly over batter.

Crumble topping ingredients:

¼ cup sugar

¼ cup flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 tablespoons butter

Method:

Combine sugar, flour and cinnamon.

Cut in butter until crumbly.

Sprinkle over blackberries.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 35-40 minutes until golden brown on top.

Pam’s note:

Here’s a tip:  I use cold or frozen butter and grate it.  If you are in need of room temperature butter quickly, grate your cold or frozen butter!  I do this with butter in most of my baking and it aids the product in baking perfectly.  Cookies will not spread as they do when using room temperature butter.  Plus, if you decide to bake on the spur of the moment you are not concerned with having cold butter! 

This blackberry buckle gets rave reviews every time, bake it and yours will also!!!

Don’t forget to enter my give-away posted on July 20^th!       Here's the link:

http://pamsmidwestkitchenkorner.blogspot.com/2010/07/its-give-away-time.html