Last week we were blessed with a surplus of grapes, concord grapes to be exact. So the hubs and I set about doing the whole preservation thing, he made wine and I made jelly.
Well, there was a cup of jelly sitting in my fridge after all the canners cooled and air locks ceased bubbling, and my brain did that thing it always does when I have something laying about that usually isn't present, I wonder if?
This time the wonder was more of a I should. It has been scads of years since I made thumbprint cookies, partially because I don't have little ones running amok anymore. Thumbprint cookies are so much fun to make with the under ten set. They love smashing their thumbs into pretty much anything, from cookie dough to mud to manure....sigh...
Anyway, when I saw that bit of grape jelly in the fridge, I just knew I had to whip up a batch of PB&J thumbprints. Because even though I don't have small fries about the farm these days, I do have a passel of teenagers lurking about who will eat just about anything!
So, I got out a mixing bowl and sifted some flour, baking powder, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt together. Amazingly, I didn't get any of the dry ingredients on me, what a kitchen miracle that was!
Next, I placed the butter, peanut butter, and sugar in my stand mixing bowl and beat the stuff until it was well creamed together. A couple eggs, some vanilla and almond extracts found their way into the bowl, and after incorporating those ingredients I folded in the dry mix.
And wonder of wonders, I still wasn't wearing any of the stuff!
Before I started mixing my dough, I had preheated the oven to 375 Fahrenheit and lined my giant cookie sheet with some parchment paper.
I really should own stock in a parchment paper manufacturing company...
Lost investment opportunities aside, I then began rolling out tablespoons of dough into nice little balls and placed them onto my prepared cookie sheet. Still quite in awe that things were progressing non-messily, I then moved on to the fun part, I poked holes in each ball of dough with my thumb.
Now, for the fair in constitution among us, you could also use a wooden spoon handle should you wish to not sully your digits with greasy peanut butter cookie dough, but as I am an uncultured heathen, I had no qualms about diving in and thumbprinting the heck out of that dough.
Then, I took a teaspoon and placed a bit of grape jelly into each depression in the dough that I had created. It looked so pretty!
And I was still CLEAN AND TIDY! Good lords!
These cookies bake pretty fast, like 7-9 minutes. I went the full 9 minutes on my baking time, as that was when the cookies just started to brown on the edges.
Another important thing to note is to not to get to hasty about removing them to the cooling rack, they need to just chill for about five minutes on the tray before removing to the cooling rack, well, unless you like broken cookies or want to make a cookie mosaic or something.
After fully cooling the thumbprints, I gave one to my daughter who was tapping away on her Chromebook doing her homework. She occasionally grumbled and yelled at the screen, so I thought a mood restorative was in order. The only sound she made after I gave her a cookie was, mmmmm, yum.
So I think it's safe to say this recipe is at least edible.😉
PB&J Thumbprint Cookies
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 cup grape jellyPreheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
In a mixing bowl, sift together (or whisk) flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cornstarch.
In a separate mixing bowl, cream together butter, peanut butter, and sugar. Beat in eggs and extracts.
Mix in dry ingredients until just blended. Do not over mix.
Roll Tablespoon sized balls of dough and place on cookie sheet at least two inches apart.
Press holes in the middle of each ball of dough with your thumb or wooden spoon handle and fill with grape jelly.
Bake 7-9 minutes or until cookie edges just start to brown. Remove from oven and cool cookies on the sheet for at least five minutes before removing to wire rack to fully cool.
This recipe makes 3 dozen cookies to enjoy!
And as most of the time, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's miraculously peanut butter and jelly free iPhone.