Baking Up the Past



My grandma and me in what is now my kitchen... note the floors which still (much to my dismay) exist

 I remember when I was younger my grandma would make dozens and dozens of Christmas cookies and I would always get to help her. Well, if I'm being honest I probably wasn't the biggest helper... I more preferred to eat the cookies in dough form rather than bake them.

This year I'm a little behind in the Christmas to-do list. I'm struggling a bit to get into the spirit. I've decorated the house, but that's about all that's gotten done. The presents are not all bought and the ones that are have not been wrapped. I also seemed to have misplaced all the ribbon I bought after last year's Christmas. And until today I hadn't baked a single cookie.

As I was thinking back to all the baking my grandma would do I realized she would not be happy with me for being so bah humbug, so I got my not-so-little, cranky booty into the kitchen today to try and find some inspiration. I decided to make one of the recipes she used to make... Jam Thumbprints. These are super easy to make and you can use whatever filling you like. If you're not a fan of the jam (yeah, I totally did not mean to rhyme there) then you could use about any filling... I'm thinking of testing out some carmel later.

And now that the house smells like cookies I think I'm feeling a little less cranky. Maybe I'll throw on White Christmas and wrap a few gifts. Now, if I could just find my ribbon...

Jam Thumbprints

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

2 egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup finely chopped walnuts

1/2 cup jam

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy; add egg and vanilla and mix well. Add flour and salt; mix until combined. Roll dough into small balls and then roll these in the chopped walnuts. Make a thumbprint in each cookie and top with jam.  Bake at 350 for 13-15 minutes. *I would recommend putting parchment paper down on your cookie sheets so if any of the jam rolls off the cookie you'll have a much easier clean up!