Vanilla & Masala

I will be honest. The primary reason for making these cookies was to test my luck with this jam. I will keep the jam recipe for another day because truth be told I dont remember any measurements at all. I had just eyeballed a certain amount of cut plums and sugar which I heated up together in a saucepan. Call it beginner’s luck or whatever, but the jam turned out to be one of the best thing’s I have made from scratch in recent times. But I didn’t stop there. I went a step ahead – perhaps I wanted to push my luck even further and subject this jam to another round of heating and cooling. So this is how I ended up making these beautiful thumbprint cookies. This combination of shortbread and homemade plum jam results in this delectable melt-in-the-mouth cookie.

The recipe is from here. I made some modifications which cut down the prep + bake time significantly. This helps especially if you are working with a single baking sheet. Unlike the original method, I baked them immediately after shaping them instead of refrigerating them first. I also rolled the cookie dough in granulated sugar before shaping them on the baking sheet. I also baked them at 325 F for 20 minutes instead of at 375 F for 12-14 minutes. Finally I also decided to decorate some of them with sugar icing which made them look even prettier and sweeter for those who are okay with it!