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Monday, February 11, 2013

Thumbprints



Well, whew! I’m back. Yeah, I know my one fan will be happy about that! I got the gunge that’s going around. I got a mild case of it and it still knocked me for a loop! But I’m feeling better. I’m feeling good enough to bake cookies so things are definitely on the up-swing.

Okay, I LOVE goat cheese. Just love it. I know a lot of people think they don’t like it, but think of it like cream cheese and I’m hoping I can change your mind with these amazing cookies!


What happened is this : our local market bought too much goat cheese, so they were selling it out at one third the price. Oh yeah! Goat cheese heaven! And special thanks to my daughter who alerted me to this. As a result of all this goat cheesiness, I used La Bonne Vie brand.


Thumb print cookies are also wonderful. This recipe from Land-o’-Lakes is my absolute favorite.
So I just changed it up a little. Made it more goat cheese friendly! If you can’t find goat cheese, then go ahead and replace it with cream cheese if you must, but I assure you, the tang of goat cheese is fabulous!

Cookies :
½ C Butter, softened
½ C soft goat cheese (I used Cranberry-cinnamon)
2/3 C granulated sugar
½ t vanilla extract
1 C whole wheat pastry flour (or all purpose flour)
1 C almond meal (Ground almonds)

Print filling :
¼ C soft goat cheese (Again with the cranberry-cinnamon)
2 T  jam (I used black currant)

Glaze :
¼ C powdered sugar
½ t triple sec (or vanilla extract)
Water (if needed)


Combine softened butter and goat cheese, sugar, and vanilla. Combine A.P. flour and almond meal, add to butter mixture. Mix until creamy. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.  This time is really needed because the dough is very soft.


While the dough is resting, Stir the ¼ C goat cheese and put it into a sandwich bag and put it in the refrigerator.

Measure out the jam into a small cup and stir it to soften a bit.

Stir the Triple Sec into the powdered sugar, add water if necessary to make a thin glaze. Put this into a sandwich bag and set aside.

When your hour is up, heat the oven to 375 degrees F. Roll the dough into 1” balls and place about 2 inches across on an ungreased baking sheet. Use your thumb to make an imprint in each ball. You can use the back of a spoon. I found that my thumb, damp, worked best. The cookies may crack a bit around the edges.




Clip the corner off the bag with the cranberry-cinnamon goat cheese and squeeze equal amounts into each thumb print. You may have to pull or cut off the goat cheese blob.

When all the cookies are full, top the goat cheese with ¼ t of the jam.

Bake in the middle of the oven for about 14-18 minutes or until golden brown around the edges. Let cool on pan for about a minute, then remove to a cooling rack to cool completely.



Clip the corner out of the glaze bag and drizzle glaze over cooled cookies.
Enjoy!

Note : If you don't have any almond meal, use either more whole wheat pastry flour, or all purpose flour. If you have almonds, 1 C of almonds = 1 C of almond meal. Just toss those nuts into the food processor and whirl away.

 I did some of the cookies with just the cheese and some with just the jam, and some with both. The cookies with both were the absolute best!
Peace!



2 comments:

  1. Those look delicious!! I got all savory goat cheese, maybe I could do this with the savory thumbprint cookies I made for the holidays! :)

    ReplyDelete