Cherry-Almond Delights!

Ok, so the recipe title is actually Strawberry-Almond Thumbprint Cookies, but I thought they were delightful, and I substituted cherry preserves for the strawberry (an excellent decision on my part, if I say so myself.) Other than the one substitution, the recipe is pretty straight forward. I will give you a heads-up, though. I refrigerated the dough after mixing it up because it looked sort of "crumbly." I wouldn't advise doing so...the butter re-hardens and makes it quite a bit more difficult to roll into balls.

I made them for my Thursday night book club after I was late last month due to birthday brownies for Mike. I'll even share a few tomorrow with my co-workers since I had some left over.

Keep an eye out for Junior League of Wilmington's new book, which is where I found this recipe, at Cookbook Marketplace. It's definitely a must-have. There a twelve chapters/menus-one for each month of the year!
Strawberry-Almond Thumbprint Cookies
Cookies
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
⅔ cup sugar
½ teaspoon almond extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
Strawberry preserves

Almond Glaze
1½ cups confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons almond extract
4 to 5 teaspoons water

Cookies: Melt the butter in a microwave-safe bowl on High. Add the sugar, almond extract and flour and mix well. Shape into 1- to 2-inch balls and place on a cookie sheet.  Press your thumb in the center of each ball to form an indentation. Fill with preserves. Bake at 350 degrees for 14 to 18 minutes or until light brown. Cool on a wire rack.
Glaze: Combine the confectioners’ sugar, almond extract and water in a bowl and mix until smooth. Drizzle over the cookies.

Makes 3 dozen.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Finally Fall

Image
On tonight's menu...Monday Night Football and Moroccan Carrot Soup!  That peeler is one of the cheapest and best kitchen gadgets I own! Nothing says Fall has arrived like football and soup, and since the temps around here finally dropped below the 80s, it was time to break out the soup pot. I first tried this carrot soup at my aunt's house several months ago, and I couldn't wait to make it again so Mike could try it, too. It's really easy to make, and I believe relatively healthful. I'm not sure where the original recipe came from, so consider this one, "From the Kitchen of Aunt Sheryl." I used Greek yogurt, and doubled the recipe so we could have leftovers for lunches. The recipe as listed says it will serve 4. Drizzling in the honey... Moroccan Carrot Soup 2 Tbl butter 1 cup chopped white onion 1 lb large carrots, peeled and chopped into ½-inch pieces 2½ cups low-salt chicken broth 1 Tbl honey 1 tsp fresh lemon juice ⅛ tsp ground allspice...
Read more

Not Above Bribery...

No new recipe today, folks (that will come tomorrow). Instead, I'm introducing a month-long "game," if you will. Here's the deal: 1. During the month of February, be sure to not only visit my blog, but to also post comments on my blog posts. 2. For every comment you make on my blog, you will have an entry in a drawing I'm holding. 3. On March 1st, I will choose one name from the hat. The winner will receive a free copy of Recipes Worth Sharing , a fantastic cookbook valued at $24.95 that I use often (remember the shrimp and grits I made?). That's all you have to do. The more comments you make, the more chances you have at winning. I will limit it to one Comment per blog post so we don't have people posting one word at a time or something equally crazy. Please use your best judgement. I hope you're as excited about this as I am. After all, who doesn't love FREE stuff?!
Read more

Butternut Squash Soup, Take 2

Image
A few days ago, I posted a recipe for a super-simple, super-scrumptious Butternut Squash Soup. Unaware of how many squash to buy for that particular dish, I bought 2 and ended up needing only 1. And so, here is Butternut Squash Soup, take 2. I know, I could make myriad other recipes with my squash, but it’s cold and rainy, and who doesn’t love soup on a cold and rainy day? This time I went for a more “gourmet” soup, Creamy Butternut Squash and Ginger-Apple Soup from ** Starfish Café: Changing Lives One Recipe at a Time . The basics are the same: Sauté some onion in butter. Add squash and broth, and purée everything when tender. The “gourmet” part of this comes in the addition of apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, saffron, and yogurt. Yummy indeed. Now, before you rush out to buy the ingredients and notice that saffron is crazy expensive, let me tell you something—saffron is crazy expensive. Don’t feel like you have to add it. Many recipes I read encourage using turmeric in place of saffron (...
Read more