So I made these early for a few reasons. Firstly they were the least likely gifts of all the cookies this month. Secondly, I apparently can't read and thought these were actually supposed to be made this week. Doh!The making of these cookies heralded the arrival of Summer in Brisbane.
Without really thinking I got the butter out of the fridge about 9pm the night before. I got up to a puddle of oil with a blob of yellow in the middle. Ew. I decided to persevere though as these were destined for a morning tea in just a few short hours so I weighed the blob, made up the amount with extra butter and waited a mere 20 minutes for it to be soft enough.
The dough itself was incredibly soft. I think I can blame that on the weather rather than the recipe, but I'm interested to see what everyone else thinks.
The taste test ...
These were very different from what I expected. 'Buttery' made me think of cookies that are slightly crispy around the edges and soft in the middle. These ended up being very soft and very cakey the whole way through.My tip ... choose your all time, absolute favourite jam for these because that is where the bulk of the flavour comes from. However just as Dorie says, the jam really does add something to the texture, making them slightly denser and chewier than you would expect.
Because of the cakeyness these are screaming out for add-ins. Next time I make these (and I do foresee a next time!) I would add some toasted almonds to the apricot jam, or use raspberry jam with dark chocolate chips.
My only other issue came from baking these in batches. You can see from the photo that some look smooth and others look textured on top. The smooth ones were the first batch. By the time the tray was cool enough to use again the baking powder was doing its job and 'fluffing up' the mix. I liked the look of batch number 2 better!
Thanks to Heather of Randomosity and the Girl for this pick which of course was supposed to be for next Tuesday, 16th December. It was fun!
Sometime in the next 2 weeks - Linzer Sables and Grandma's All-Occasion Sugar Cookies.
If these are soft and cakey my Grumpy will be happy. He doesn't like the sugar cookies because I rolled them thin and they turned out crispy!
ReplyDeleteglad you enjoyed these! i'm looking forward to them next week. thanks for the tip on the jam:) also... i'm so jealous it is warm there!!
ReplyDeleteI haven't made these yet, so thanks for the tips using good jam and adding mix-ins!
ReplyDeleteRaspberry jam with dark chocolate chips sounds like perfection.
ReplyDeleteI love your ideas for mix-ins! They make me want to make these again and tinker with them. I agree that they do need a little more flavor!
ReplyDeleteI just made these last night and went with Apricot jam. I am going to put them on the cookie/treat platter that I am bringing to my family's Xmas gathering.
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