Cranberry Thumbprint Cookies with a Soft Middle

Set out butter room temperature, sugar, and all-purpose flour before you start Cranberry Thumbprint Cookies with a Soft Middle. The batch is written for 24 Cookies.

Count on 30 minutes of prep, 12 minutes of cooking, about 42 minutes from the first measurement to the plate.

Ingredients Method

What goes in the bowl

For the Cookies

• ¾ cup butter room temperature
• ¼ cup sugar
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• Pinch kosher salt
• 1 egg white whisked until frothy
• 1 cup granulated or raw sugar

For the Cranberry Jelly

• 3 cups cranberries
• 1 1/3 cup water
• 1 ½ cup sugar
• 1 cup moscato wine
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Pinch kosher salt

How the cooking goes

To Make the Cookie Dough

1. In the bowl of a electric mixer cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fully.
2. Put the flour and salt and mix on low until the mix just comes together.
3. Divide the dough into two pieces and roll out into 2 logs 1 ¼ inches in diameter on baking paper. Wrap in parchment and refrigerate until hard (at least 3 hours).

To Make the Jelly

1. Set cranberries and water in a medium saucepan and heat it until it boils, lower the heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Pass mixture through a strainer or sieve, being sure to scrape off the outside of the strainer!
2. Return strained cranberry mixture to the saucepan then add sugar, wine, lemon juice and sat. Cook until sauce reaches 220°F (104°C).
3. Skim any foam then pour into a glass bowl to cool. Pour into a piping bag or plastic baggie.

Baking & Assembling the Cookies

1. Warm the oven to 350°F (176°C).
2. Unroll the log but leave it on the baking paper. Brush the egg white on all sides of the log. Pour about ¼ cup granulated sugar in a line on the parchment. Roll the log in the sugar to evenly coat all sides.
3. Remove from parchment and place on cutting board. Cut into ½ inch slices and place slices on parchment lined sheet pan.
4. Press your thumb into each cookie to make an indent. If the cookies crack, let them warm up for about 5 minutes and try again.
5. Cut the corner off the plastic baggie or piping bag and squeeze about a teaspoon of jelly into the indent of each cookie.
6. Oven-bake 12-15 minutes or until the edges of the dough are just beginning to brown.
7. Allow to cool 2 minutes on the pan and then remove to a wire rack to cool until it is no longer warm.

After it comes off the heat

Cool the sheet on a rack before the pieces are stacked. A covered tin keeps them for a few days.

If you want another plate from Cookies, open Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Cookies Baked Until the Edges Set and Lemon Blueberry Cookies Baked Until the Edges Set.