A few of us on Twitter were talking about the differences between muffins and cupcakes. One you eat before 11 am and the other after 11 am. One without buttercream frosting before 11 am and the other with frosting after 11 am. These cookies are another treat you can justify before 11 am if you add the jam or jelly and think of them as scones or biscuits instead of cookies!
I sprinkled some of the cookies with cinnamon sugar ("toast dope"). I also tried baking them in a madeleine pan, but they were too cakey for my liking. I even tried forming them into a heart surrounded by two candy canes. Cute and tasty but not so pretty. My favorite version was sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and a dollop of homemade jam (or in my case, homemade crabapple cinnamon jelly).
Recipe
Makes about 45 cookies
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter
2/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 tablespoons milk
½ teaspoon vanilla
¼ cup apricot jam (or your flavor of choice)
You can find the recipe for Buttery Jam Cookies in the book Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or here. To see how the rest of the TWD group fared with this week's recipe, click here and then click on each blogger!
Tasting Notes
These cookies are a perfect little breakfast treat! They are easy drop cookies that don't spread much during baking. I could also see them as a base for thumbprint-style cookies. They're an all around easy cookie for your holiday cookie line-up.
Recipe for Next Week (December 23)
Real Butterscotch Pudding on page 386 chosen by Donna of Spatulas, Corkscrews & Suitcases.
Other Christmas cookie ideas:
• Grandma’s All-Occasion Sugar Cookies
• Linzer Sablés
• Brown Sugar-Pecan Shortbread Cookies
• Lenox Almond Biscotti
• Rugelach
Other pretty Buttery Jam Cookies I found this week (before the onslaught of 300+ TWD bakers):
• Nemmie from Cast Sugar also made some beautiful piped versions
I love your reasoning for cupcakes vs. muffins and cookies in the morning! I also think that anything you eat before 11 a.m. has fewer calories than if you ate it later in the day :) Your cookies look great! Perfect with that morning cup of coffee :)
ReplyDeleteI 100% agree with your reasoning on muffins and cookies at breakfast. Although that might be because I'm trying to convince myself as well... :) Cinnamon crabapple jelly sounds delicious!
ReplyDeleteI love the fruit spread on top...makes them look like jewels. Pretty or not, the candy cane ones look amazingly good and interesting...where do you come up with these ideas? Great looking cookies...thanks for the links to others.
ReplyDeleteAre you saying that other cookies aren't good for breakfast? Darn. The jelly sounds so yummy!
ReplyDeleteCiao Shari! I would like to know how you make that wonderful jelly !!I shoul have added some too !
ReplyDeleteYay! I see the free-form artist peeking through the plain bland cookie! Anyone else does? LOL
ReplyDeleteBeautiful light in the pic, Shari... and intelligent take on cupcakes/muffins!
I'm with you! We really enjoyed these cookies!
ReplyDeleteHow cute do they look with the candy canes? And I like your thinking on the cupcake/muffin/cookie issues!
ReplyDeleteCinnamon crabapple jelly sounds fabulous! They look almost too good to eat!
ReplyDeleteyum, the cinnamon sugar sounds delicious on top!! :) that would be my favorite too. btw i have eaten these for breakfast for the past two days;)
ReplyDeleteMmm, I wish I'd have tried the cinnamon sugar on top.
ReplyDeleteYours looks so cute :)
Great thinking! Now I feel better about eating several of my cookies early in the morning. =) Your cookies look great with the jam on top.
ReplyDeleteThese definitely are perfect for breakfast. And with a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar, they sound perfect!
ReplyDeleteI dig your cardamon idea. I'll have to try that too.
ReplyDeleteOh, so weird! Your last 5 posts just poured into my RSS feed reader! What in the world happened!? Oh well, technology! :P
ReplyDeleteThe cookies look yummy (more sugar=always better, heh heh)! Too bad about the candy cane hearts, though (how is it that one side melted and the other didn't? I think if both melted or both stayed solid, there's something in there!) :)
your cookies look gorgeous with that lovely jelly on top!
ReplyDeleteSo cute! I love the cinnamon toast flavoring on top too!
ReplyDeletei'd love the cinnamon sugar ones, too! the jam looks beautiful on top--sparkly and sunny!
ReplyDeleteLove the milkshakes! And you are right about cupcakes v. muffins. Your cookies look great too!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful with the spread on top. And I love your Holiday milkshakes!
ReplyDeletelove the first photo!
ReplyDeleteShari,
ReplyDeleteTotally agree with the rational of eating them as a breakfast "carb" (Ho Ho HO). Anyway, basically anyway you can rationalize it, right? So simple and just a nice little comfort cookies thing. Love the jelly on top.
Happy Holidays! & Stay Warm
AmyRuth