Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Thumbprints for us Big Guys



This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Mike of Ugly Food Dude. He selected Thumbprints For Us Big Guys, which are a refined thumbprint cookie. Visit Mike’s blog for the complete recipe. I used to not like thumbprints very much; they were always kind of boring. I made some Cashew Caramel Thumbprints earlier this year that I liked a lot and these were very good as well. I really like thumbprints now!

These thumbprints get a lot of their flavor and sophistication from the dough, which is one part flour, one part ground hazelnuts. I love hazelnuts, so I had great hopes these would be good. You could easily substitute ground almonds if you prefer that flavor. You then have your choice of fillings. I used raspberry chocolate orange preserves. Fancy, huh? These preserves really
knocked these cookies out of the park.



Both my husband and I have a habit of picking up interesting ingredients when we see them, with the expectation to use them later in a recipe. We always visit the local farmer’s market when it is running. We sometimes get flowers, local produce, a pie from the pie lady, you get the idea. One weekend, we found a vendor selling homemade preserves. She was sampling the raspberry orange preserves, but we noticed the raspberry chocolate orange preserves. She only had a couple of jars left, so we bought one.

The preserve tastes mainly like regular raspberry preserves, but with interesting chocolate and orange notes. I think that the flavors pair well with the sweetness of the hazelnuts. These cookies are addictive! I was a little late coming home from work and my husband enjoyed quite a few while he was waiting for me to come home. The dough is very crumbly, so that’s a bit of a challenge when you are making the cookies. My batch also made a lot less than the 60 that the recipe says it yields. Dorie must have made her cookies super small. Mine aren’t as perfectly round as the ones pictured in Dorie’s book, but I really loved this cookies. I wouldn’t change a thing.

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 164

10 comments:

Jessica said...

The raspberry chocolate orange preserves sound really interesting and tasty. I'm a big fan of all of those flavors, but I've never had all three of them combined. Your cookies look delightful, and I'm glad that you and your husband enjoyed these!

Beth said...

SOunds delicious! I love that you used a local jam for yours. Great job!

Flourchild said...

They look so good. I loved this recipe too!
Great looking cookies!!

Mary said...

They look great and those preserves sound wonderful:) I love going to the market too, and picked up some cedar jelly on my last trip--not sure what I'll do with that yet! I used lemon curd in my cookies, and they were very good, but pale.

Unknown said...

Yeah, the crumbly texture did take some time to get used to working with. Love the preserves you used. Very neat addition. Your cookies look perfect!

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Cindy said...

Love your filling! My daughter made some chocolate raspberry jam. I will have to try it. Great idea.

Mimi said...

Those look delicious. I love the raspberry, chocolate and orange flavor combination.
Mimi

Pamela said...

Your cookies look wonderful. I love the way the powdered sugar is so noticeable on them, too.

Ashley aka Eclectic Connoisseur said...

Raspberry chocolate orange preserves? That sounds crazy good!!