Jamspreading

A few weeks ago, driven by pandemic safety preferences and a touch of laziness, I placed an order for grocery delivery. Most of the order went fine, with soups arriving as soups and vegetables arriving as vegetables. When it came time to add strawberry jam to the cart, though, my shopper made an odd choice. Instead of strawberry — in my chosen brand or any other, and instead of a close-ish replacement like raspberry jam — this person picked out apricot.

I had ordered jam to use in PB&Js, and here’s a PSA for you: apricots and peanut butter aggressively do not work together. I’d used as much of the stuff as I could in the intervening weeks, but I really wanted a recipe that could knock the rest of the jar out in one go. With Thumbprint Cookies, this book delivered.

Now, given that this recipe finally rid me of the leftover Bonne Maman that’s been haunting me since Christmas, I can’t complain too much — but, in typical me fashion, I will complain a little.

These were just okay. Nearly all the flavor came from the jelly, and the cookies themselves were a bit on the dry side. I did tweak the recipe somewhat, given that it called for 1/4 cup of hazelnut flour and I was not going to spend $15 on a bag of specialty flour just to use that little of it. But still, I don’t think following the instructions to the letter would have improved these as much as they needed. They were fine, but, barring another jam surplus I’m desperate to bake down, I don’t think I’d make them again.

After two successful bakes, I also regret to inform you that the technical side of this experiment didn’t go so well. I apparently failed to make my thumbprints deep enough, so, in nearly every case, the jam overflowed past the edges of these cookies and splayed out onto the baking sheets. I won’t lie — the crystallized apricot sugar did taste pretty good. But this is jamspreading, and like its men-on-trains forebear, it is rude.

I will say one thing in these cookies’ favor. If you’ve been looking to get in on the trend of food that looks like other food but you’re too lazy to bake a cake, these are your friend. They may taste like cookies, but visually, these babies are 100% fried egg.