The Perfect Tea Cookie

When I was a girl growing up, my parents would spend Sunday afternoon with grandparents having afternoon tea. My grandmother is from England and of course afternoon tea is quite an affair. Different types of teas, finger sandwiches, pastries, cookies and of course Devonshire cream. Well, we didn't do anything quite so fancy here stateside, but my grandparents and parents always had some sort of snack at tea. When I saw this Emeril Lagasse recipe on the Food Network website, it just reminded me of those afternoon teas. As most of you know, I've recently become obsessed with cookies and devoted many posts to new cookies recipes I have stumbled upon. The recipe I discovered was for Raspberry Lemon Thumbprint Cookies but I was out of raspberry jam. I substituted the raspberry jam for apricot and the chambord for orange juice. They were simply delicious and truly the perfect cookie for afternoon tea.

Raspberry Lemon Thumbprint Cookies

Recipe courtesy Emeril Lagasse, 2003

Ingredients

* 1/2 cup raspberry jam or jelly
* 1 tablespoon Chambord or kirsch
* 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 2 sticks (1 cup) butter, at room temperature
* 2/3 cup sugar
* 2 large egg yolks
* 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
* 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly butter 2 large baking sheets.

In a small bowl, combine the jam and Chambord. Stir to combine.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt and whisk to blend.

In a large bowl using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Beat in the egg yolks, lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla. Add the flour mixture in 2 additions and beat just until moist clumps form. Gather the dough together into a ball.

Pinch off the dough to form 1-inch balls. Place on the prepared baking sheets, spacing 1-inch apart. Use your floured index finger or 1/2 teaspoon measuring spoon to create depressions in the center of each ball. Fill each indentation with nearly 1/2 teaspoon of the jam mixture. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes.

Transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool completely.