Bake and Slice Thumbprint Cookies

Yield: about 30 cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
(see Cook’s Note)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter (12 tablespoons), at
room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1/4 cup raspberry jam
1/4 cup apricot jam

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.
Add the butter and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or a large bowl if using a hand mixer). Beat on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined. With the mixer on low speed, gradually add the dry ingredients and beat until just combined.

Turn out the dough onto a floured surface and flatten into a disk. Divide into 4 equal portions. Roll each portion into a cylinder about 10 inches long and 1-inch wide.

Transfer the cylinders to the prepared baking sheets. Lightly press the tops of the cylinders with your fingers to flatten.

Press the handle of wooden spoon with a 1/2-inch thick handle into the center of each cylinder to create a long trough about 1/2-inch deep, leaving a small border all around. (The cylinders will spread to about 1 1/2 inches wide.) (See Cook’s Note.)

Put the raspberry jam in a small piping bag and pipe it into the indentations of 2 of the cylinders. Repeat with the apricot jam and the remaining 2 cylinders.

Bake until the edges of the cylinders are golden, 22 to 25 minutes, rotating the pans from top to bottom halfway through. Transfer the baking sheets to wire racks to cool, about 10 minutes.

Carefully transfer each cylinder to a cutting board and cut them on the diagonal into 1- inch pieces. Transfer the cookies to the wire rack and cool completely.

Cook’s Note
When measuring flour, we spoon it into a dry measuring cup and level off excess. (Scooping directly from the bag compacts the flour, resulting in dry baked goods). You could certainly use your thumb to make an imprint in the dough for the jam, but we found using the handle of a wooden spoon gives you a move even, uniform shape.

ORIGINAL recipe: Food Network