I'm Back With Thumbprint Cookies

As I finish my second year of college, study for finals, figure out the details of my living situation for next semester, apply for the study abroad program, apply to jobs (bakeries!) and prepare to say goodbye to Chicago for a couple of months, I have realized that it has been way too long since I have posted an entry. With all the goings on of the second semester I have been so caught up in all the new experiences, good, bad and weird, that I have done some baking, but not nearly as much as I usually do.

I have found a new outlook from all my many mistakes, successes, relationships and schoolwork I have been so enveloped with. To say the least, the semester was trying and has left me in uncertainty. I am now 20, half way through college, time wizzing over my head,and I have a pestering omnipresent thought that I have to out myself in the "real world" and actually do something with my life. So I have researched and am applying to numerous bakeries for a summer job (something I have been planning to do for a while, but am just getting to now).

Being finals week I don't think much baking will happen, but I have some coconut, raspberry jam and LOTS of BUTTER, so I might have to make some thumbprint cookies. One of my favorite foodnetwork stars, Ina Garten, has a delicious recipe for thumbprint cookies. The cookies are moist, have a crunchy shell and have the soft center that I find necessary for a cookie to be considered an actual cookie.

Jam Thumbprint Cookies from Ina Garten

3/4 pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash
7 ounces sweetened flaked coconut
Raspberry and/or apricot jam

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until they are just combined and then add the vanilla. Separately, sift together the flour and salt. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture to the creamed butter and sugar. Mix until the dough starts to come together. Dump on a floured board and roll together into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.

Roll the dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. (If you have a scale they should each weigh 1 ounce.) Dip each ball into the egg wash and then roll it in coconut. Place the balls on an ungreased cookie sheet and press a light indentation into the top of each with your finger. Drop 1/4 teaspoon of jam into each indentation. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the coconut is a golden brown. Cool and serve.

On another note, though I haven't kept the usual baking quota these past few months, I have been scouring countless food blogs and have saved A LOT (988 to be exact, not counting) of recipes to try when I get back into the swing of things. But more about those later a little of what I have baked (recipes to come later):


My Nana's chocolate bunt cake that was published (an altered version) to boston.com. It was delicious! I hope that I got all of her baking genes!


The bunny cake I made for a adorable little girl's first birthday. She ended up being sick so, her party was cancelled, but I hope she got a little piece of it. This is also the most MASSIVE cake I have ever made. I used the Primrose Bakery frosting and cake recipes.

And of course my staple cookie recipes (double chocolate chip, original and espresso cinnamon chocolate chip) have been baked (or cookie dough eaten) several times.

Must return to my studies, be ready for baked goods galore!