Raspberry Fingers

This is the recipe for the cookies that were pictured on my blog this past Friday. In the photo above, I used leftover scraps of sugar cookie dough. However, I think the recipe that I'm posting today is a better base for the cookie. It's crisper and holds up to the jam better, IMO.

I love jam thumbprint cookies, but I dislike the extra work of rolling individual balls, and putting jam into multiple thumbprints. This method for "fingers" is simpler. And I believe, "jammier". I hope you enjoy them!

You bake the cookies in two segments, one without the filling, and the other after adding the filling. (The filling is simply jam, by the way.)

Ingredients:
1 cup of butter, softened
3/4 cup of granulated sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2  1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 to 2 tablespoons water, as needed

raspberry jam (other flavors of jam also work well, such as plum or blackberry), about 4-6 ounces


Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla.

Stir the flour and salt together. Add to the creamed butter/sugar/egg/vanilla, 1/3 of the flour at a time, mixing well between additions. Add the water, 1 tablespoon at a time, as needed, until the dough is workable, but not too soft. Roll the dough into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap and chill 20 to 30 minutes.

Divide the dough into quarters. Roll each quarter into a long rope that is the length of your baking sheet. Lightly butter a baking sheet, or use a non-stick baking sheet. Lay 2 ropes onto a baking sheet, and press a trough down the center of each rope.

Bake at 375 degrees F, for 10 minutes. Remove baking sheet from oven, and fill the dough troughs with jam. Return to oven and bake for 9 to 12 minutes longer, or until light golden brown.

Cool on the baking sheet, set on a wire rack. Cut on the diagonal, while on the baking sheet, then remove to a rack.

Makes about 3 dozen.

If you want to make them look fancy, make a thin white icing and drizzle over the tops of the cooled cookies, like this (they'll be finger-shaped, however):

Or, sprinkle with powdered sugar, for this look (again, as above, they'll be finger-shaped and not rounds):

Senior Shopping Day Last Week

I bought all of this for $20.12 I am amazed, myself, because this is a month's supply of milk for the family, 4 jars of natural peanut butter, soy milk for me, about a pound and a half of smoked almonds, hot dogs, cookie mixes and canned frosting.

It was Senior Discount Day, so 10% was taken right off the top for any of the house brands, and natural foods. The milk was on sale, already for 99 cents each, plus the 10% discount on those. The soy milk was on markdown, plus 10% off, as it is one of Fred Meyer's house brands. The smoked almonds were on sale for $4.99/lb, and they also received the 10% off, as they come from the natural foods' section. As I was about to check out, I saw these cookie mixes and canned frosting on markdown, the cookie mixes for 42 cents/box, and the canned frosting for 37 cents/can. I could not pass those up. Even though I prefer scratch products for myself (digestive issues with packaged foods), these are perfect for when it is my turn to serve at coffee hour (which happened to be this past Sunday).

If you are a math whiz, you have probably figured out that surely this must have cost more than $20. I also had a $10.83 reward to use before March, from the autumn reward's cycle. And that brought my grand total down to $20.12.

Sadly, what was not in my cart that day was produce. I did pick up some fresh fruit and vegetables a week ago, Friday. Those items will have to do for the moment.

Anyway, I was incredibly pleased to spend so little.