Small but perfectly formed, these apricot pastries deliver big flavour in a small package.
Having baked, and posted, several recipes recently which take quite some time I thought I should do something that takes only a short time to make. I opted for a very simple pastry, or cookie, dough that is filled with some apricot jam. Any jam could be used, of course, if apricot is not a favourite flavour. These are similar to thumbprint cookies, so you could use a thumb to make the indentation needed to hold the jam. But for mine I used something else, a metal wand that had the right circumferance. I simply wrapped it in plastic wrap and dipped it in flour before dipping each time.
These are from a recipe I saw on a blog which can be seen here.
The recipe is very simple and the dough takes very little time to make. It can be done by hand, or with a hand mixer, since it only needs the sugar and butter creamed together and then the other ingredients added and mixed in, with the flour being added in three parts at the end.
Then after chilling the dough for a while, 30 minutes to an hour is enough, it just has to be divided into 12g pieces and rolled into balls. Each ball it pressed down to create an indentation which is then filled with jam. Everything his then complete and ready to bake.
One tip I have is that when you create the indentation if the dough cracks you just need to roll it again, and that will soften it more and when you create the indentation again it shouldn’t crack.
My pastries turned out very well indeed. The flavour was, as expected, the sweet and fruit jam and the pastry crumbled nicely in the mouth too.
So these are tasty and very easy to make.
Nutella Thumprint Cookies are a similar type of cookie.
Ingredients:
- 270g(1 2/3 cup + 2 tbsp, based on scooping packed flour into 250ml cup) plain flour
- 150g(11 tbsp – 1 tsp) softened unsalted butter
- 85g(2/3 cup) icing sugar
- 1 medium egg(large in USA)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
- 250g(9 oz) apricot jam( you may not need it all, the rest can go back in the jar
).
- In a large bowl place the icing sugar and the butter and cream them until light and fluffy.
- Add the vanilla extract, salt and egg and mix together until fully combined.
- Add the flour in three additions(1/3 at a time) and mix until combined.
- Wrap the very soft dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/350F.
- Line a couple of baking trays with parchment paper.
- Divide the dough into 12g(just under 1/2 oz) pieces and roll each piece into a tight ball.
- Place the balls on the baking trays, leaving a gap between each.
- Use tool, or a thumb, to make a circular indentation in the dough.
- Spoon a little jam into each indentation, maybe about 1/2 teaspoon. Do not overfill.
- Baked in the oven for 12 to 14 minutes, until the pastry just begins to colour a little.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on the trays.