Raspberry Preserves Thumbprint Cookies

I love, love, love, love these cookies! I only make them at Christmas time and I don’t know why, because they are so stinkin’ delicious! I made a batch of these over the weekend and my Star said, “you sure you want to make them now? You still have two weeks till Christmas.” “Yes, I said, I don’t want to bake all the cookies in one weekend.” “Oh, well they might not last” he said. I really didn’t believe that he would eat them all. Well, I was wrong as they are almost completely gone. He is actually sitting here now with the cookie tin next to him chowing down! I guess I will be making another batch of these. 🙂

Ingredients:

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 oz. sweetened flaked coconut
Raspberry preserves (or your favorite jam, jelly)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In an electric mixer, 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 surface and roll together into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.

Roll the dough into balls. Dip each ball into the egg wash and roll it in coconut. I like to add a few to the egg wash instead of doing one at a time, much easier.

Place the balls on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Press a light indentation into the top of each with your finer.

Drop 1/4 teaspoon of preserves into each indentation.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the coconut is a golden brown. Cool and have at it! 🙂