The Cottage Kitchen: Strawberry-Almond Shortbread Thumbprints

Well the holiday season is officially over for another year. All the decorations and lights have been taken down and packed away - the last of the delicious rum cake given to us by a dear friend will soon be gone (hopefully we'll be on the list again for next years handout :o) - the Christmas DVDs have been put to the back of the drawer - but the thing that will be missed the greatest.....the TV channel showing the 'Yule log' 24/7. A blazing fireplace crackling on those cold winter mornings with the burly plaid sleeved arm appearing every now and again to put another log on (and I didn't even have to ask him!!).

The main living area in our little cottage is basically a one big open plan room, so it was the perfect channel to tune into while I was in the kitchen - with our real wood burning stove on the opposite wall from the TV, it was really cozy. I suppose now I'll just go back to the music channels instead :o) In fact today I had 80's classics blaring through the house while I made these thumbprint cookies to fill the cookie jar.

Strawberry-Almond Shortbread Thumbprints
30-36 cookies

1 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 - 1/2 cup strawberry jam (or your favourite preserve)

icing drizzle
1/2 cup icing sugar
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp milk

in a stand mixer cream together the butter and granulated sugar until fluffy.
add the almond extract and flour and blend until incorporated - the dough may seem flaky but it will hold together once you start forming the balls.
pinching off pieces of dough, roll them between your palms to form 1-1 1/2 inch balls and place 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.
make a small indent into the top of each ball - I used the end of my small basting brush, but anything similar will work, even just your fingertip.
fill each indent with jam, being careful not to overfill (you don't want it spilling across your cookie sheets while they're baking and ruining them.) For ease I put the jam into a small ziploc bag and cut a small hole in the corner, using it as a piping bag - far easier and a lot less messy than trying to spoon it into each cookie :)
place the cookie sheets into the refrigerator for 20 minutes to harden the cookies so that they don't spread too much while baking.
meanwhile preheat the oven to 350 F.
bake for 13-16 minutes, until the edges and bottoms are slightly browned - being shortbread the main cookie will remain pale so don't over bake them expecting the whole cookie to brown.
let the cookies cool on the sheets for a minute then transfer to wire racks which have been placed over wax paper.
in a small bowl whisk together the icing ingredients to form a smooth icing.
using the whisk or a spoon, drizzle the icing over the cookies (the wax paper will catch any excess for easy cleanup), and let them cool completely.
store in an airtight container layered between wax paper.

Strawberry-Almond Shortbread Thumbprint ingredients.

cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy, scraping down the edges a couple of times.

the dough will seems quite 'flaky' but don't worry, it will come together fine.

form into 1-1 1/2 inch balls and place 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.

this is my trusty, old basting brush (the bristles are a little on the bare side now, but it works great :) - the handle end was perfect for making the indents for the jam.

don't make the holes too deep, you don't want the jam oozing out of the bottom of the cookies.

to make things a little easier put the jam into a piping bag, or as I did a small ziploc bag with the corner cut off, to pipe the jam into the indented cookies.