Jam Drop Cookies

Tiny Beauties!

These tiny cookies, immediately impressed me. They looked so adorable that I had to try some right away. Making these are a total breeze! 

These cookies are also called Thumbprint Cookies. And that is because when you place them on a baking tray, you press your thumb in the center to make depressions, which are later filled with jam or jelly. The texture is more like the Indian Nankhatai or Shortbread cookies, but these arn't as sweet. The jam gives it the perfect sweetness. 

I made these cookies plump, because they look cuter! But you can make them slightly flat and then make a depression in them. Generally these cookies are baked with the jam IN them. But if you do this, make sure you finish these in a couple of days as the jam will slowly get the cookie soft, if not soggy. 

I bake jam drop cookies without any filling. I plop some jam just before serving and that according to me is perfect!

Heres how you make these. 

Serves: 16 cookies

Level: Easy

Adapted from: http://www.joyofbaking.com/ThumbprintCookies.html

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/4 cup sugar

1 large egg, separated

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1 cup plain flour

1/8 tsp salt

Jam for filling, any flavor

Crushed nuts to coat, optional

Crushed/Flaky coconut to coat, sweetened or plain, optional

Method:

Step 1 - Preheat oven at 350 Deg. F. Place some parchment paper on your baking sheet. If you don't have any on hand, spray some cooking oil on the tray.

Step 2 - Mix the flour and salt together. Keep aside.

Step 3 - In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar till it forms a smooth paste. Preferably with an electric whisk. Add the egg yolk and vanilla essence. Beat well again till it all comes together. 

Step 4 - Slowly sift in the flour mixture from step 2. Keep beating till it starts to form a crumb-like mixture. Do not panic! Once the mixture resembles soft bread crumbs. Put the electric whisk away and knead the dough together with your hands. It should easily come together. Try rolling the dough into small rounds and place these on the lined baking tray from step 1.

Step 5 - To make coated jam drops, spread the nuts/coconut on a flat plate. Dip the cookies in egg white and immediately roll them into the nuts/coconut. Place them on the lined baking tray.

Step 6 - Press your thumb or the back of your wooden spoon into the cookie dough on the tray and form a deep depression or indentation. You don't want to go all the way through! We just need to make depressions for the jam to be poured in.

Step 7 - Bake in the preheated oven for 12-13 mins, or until the base of the cookie starts to brown. In case of the coated jam drop cookies, bake till the coconut/nuts start to brown. Make sure you don't burn these. Once done, turn the cookies onto a cooling rack and let them cool down. 

Pour in your favorite jam and serve!

Tips:

If in step 4, you find the dough too soft to roll into rounds, keep it in the refrigerator for 30 mins till the dough can be handled well.

For fillings, you can use any flavored jam. These cookies would taste good with nutella or peanut butter in them too. Get creative here!

Do not worry if you see the cookies form cracks in the oven. Trust me, they wont break and neither are these cookies too brittle to be served.

Happy Cooking Everyone!

Homemade Ghee (Clarified Butter)

With Diwali gone by, I am all out of ghee!

With a couple of friends interested in knowing how to make homemade ghee, this post is for all you girls out there. Yea...Finally!

Now I used to buy ghee from the Indian Grocery Stores. Most of us do! But from the time I realized that it is real easy to make some at home...I never went back. There is this distinct pure flavor to the ghee made at home, that I totally adore!

And as we dont use ghee a lot in our food, due to health reasons of course, one bottle goes a long long way!

So let's get started...

Serves: Makes 1 large bottle
Level: Easy

Ingredients:
2 lbs unsalted butter
1 tblsp water
Pinch of salt, optional

Method:
Step 1 - In a large pot, place the unsalted butter and turn on the heat to medium. Let the butter slowly melt down.

Step 2 - Once the butter melts, turn the heat to low and let it come to a boil. Do not stir the butter from the base at any time during the entire cooking process. During the boiling process, the milk solids settle at the base of the pot. We dont want them to again mix with the butter. Afterall, clarified butter is what we are looking for.

Step 3 - Once the butter boils for 10 mins, start lightly moving the foam away from the top of the butter to peep in. Our aim is to reach a good visual clarity. We should be able to see the bottom of the pan, with milk solids stuck to it. This is clarified butter (literally)!

Step 4 - Once the butter has reached a nice golden color and starts smelling like toffee/nutty, there will be a layer of foam on the top of this butter. At this point, take 1 tblsp of water and slowly pour this over the butter. Stand back when you do this. The foam starts popping and disappers. Now turn off the flame and let this mixture cool for around 20 to 30 mins. Do not let it completely cool down, as this will solidify the butter which then cannot be poured into a jar.

Step 5 - Strain the ghee into a clean and dry jar with a lid. I use a simple tea or coffee strainer to do this.

Step 6 - This is an optional step. If you prefer your ghee grainy, just add a pinch of salt to the ghee in your jar and stir well. By the time the ghee cools down, you will have a nice grainy clarified butter.

Done!

Tips:
Try and use an aluminium or steel or light colored pan to prepare ghee. If you use a dark pan, it is really difficult to see if the ghee has reached its desired golden color.

Use a slightly large pan, as when you add water to the butter, the foam rises a little to the top and you dont want it to be all messy on your counter top.

Use a really clean and dry jar to store ghee. This improves it's shelf life.

Happy cooking everyone!