Jam Buttons

I think I became a bit discouraged with my previous attempts at making cookies. They've all been tasty, but they failed to live up to my expectations. Today I tried something completely new. A jam button is a little circle of shortbread with a dollop of jam sitting jewel-like in the middle. I had never made jam buttons (or their ilk) before and thus I had no Platonic ideal of a jam button in my mind to compare them to. Plus they're shortbread so there's not even any debate about leavening agents.

The recipe is incredibly simple and the dough takes all of five minutes to mix together. Where the real work comes in is cutting all the little circles out and meticulously placing just enough jam in the center. Though there isn't a lot of dough in the recipe, it produces a lot of cookies. The repetitive and exacting nature of the task gave me a feel for what it must be like to be a serious pastry chef in a restaurant or bakery. On the other hand I got to use our new set of pastry tips. We got them after watching a recent "Good Eats" episode on pate a choux and I have been eager to play with them ever since.

To say that I had no preconceptions about these cookies is not entirely true. I have certainly had shortbread cookies with jam on them before, just not this exact style. (I'm thinking of something like linzer cookies.) The only idea that I had was that the jam should be raspberry. The first batch I made was all raspberry. We ended up liking them so much that I made another batch soon after the first. Nadia helped with the second batch and, on her suggestion, we used two different jams: strawberry, and apricot with amaretto. The strawberry ones, as could be suspected, were quite good, and the apricot amaretto ones were surprisingly good as well. We had been reluctant to use the apricot amaretto jam for regular jam-like things, but it was a perfect match for the barely sweetened shortbread of the cookie. Don't think us piglets for baking a second batch; we took half of the finished cookies -- some with each type of jam -- to a holiday glögg party.

Jam Buttons
adapted from Got Milk? The Cookie Book

1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/4 sugar
pinch salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg yolk
1 cup flour
jam of choice

Preheat oven to 325°. In a medium bowl, mix butter, sugar, salt, and vanilla until well combined. Do not overmix; you're not creaming the butter and sugar just mixing to the point of uniformity. Mix in the egg yolk. Mix in the flour. Turn the dough out of the bowl and gather it into a smooth mass.

On a lightly floured surface (or between sheets of waxed paper) roll the dough out until it is about 1/2 inch thick. Slightly thinner is better than slightly thicker (if only because it makes more cookies). Cut out circles from the dough with a 1 1/2 inch round cookie cutter. Once all the dough is used up, place the circles of dough on an ungreased cookie sheet at least 1 inch apart. Press down lightly with your finger into the center of each circle to make a divot. Make sure the jam is easy to work with by stirring it up and/or heating it a bit in the microwave. Fill each divot with a small bit of jam; don't put in too much or it will overflow in the oven. I used a plastic bag with a pastry tip attached to one corner to pipe the jam into the cookies but one could use a spoon or a plastic bag without the pastry tip.

Bake until the jam starts to bubble, about 20 minutes. Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet until they are cool enough to handle (another 10-20 minutes) then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.