Surprise-Filled Cookies

I tried another new recipe this year.  Ray liked it, although he isn't too hard to please when it comes to food, lol.  

Surprise-Filled Cookies

From Page 76 of the the Mrs. Fields Cookie Book  

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 cup salted butter, softened

1 large egg

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 cup fruit jam

Yeild: 4 dozen  

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

In mediun bowl combine flour and baking powder.  Mix well with a wire whisk.  Set aside.

In a larger bowl, with an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar.  Add egg and vanilla and beat on medium until smooth.  Add the flour mixture and blend at low speed until thoroughly combined.  Dough will be firm.

Scoop out tablespoons of dough and roll into 1-inch balls and place on ungreased baking sheets.  With small end of melon baller, scoop out the center of the dough balls.  Do NOT scoop all the way through the cookie.  (I don't have a melon baller, so I just pressed my thumb into them to create the center.)  Place 1/2 teaspoon of jam in the center of each dough ball.  Place scooped-out dough back tnto mixing bowl to use to form more cookies.

Bake 22-24 minutes or until light golden brown.  Transfer to a cool surface.  

For a prettier arrangement and more variety in taste, use more than 1 flavor of jam.  I used strawberry and my homemade peach jam.  Also, I didn't have real butter yesterday so I just used margarine.  The cookies are still good, but whenever I use real butter in cookies I always think the flavor is better.

I must have made my balls too small, because I got about 73 cookies out of this recipe, lol.  But then I have so many people over during the holidays, that I tend to make my cookies smaller.  That way there are more to go around, and people don't feel guilty about trying all the different goodies I make if the servings are smaller. 

If you try this one, let me know how it worked for you.  If you have a recipe you'd like to share please send it to me, or paste it into the comment section.  I always love to get new recipes to try out and share with others.