When a craving calls...

Tuesday night I was bored. The pouring rain had me in a sour mood, as usual. And out of nowhere, I developed this craving for those packaged store bought butter cookies with the hard jelly in the middle that stuck to your mouth. The name escapes my mind at the moment but those cookies define my childhood growing up. I wanted those cookies. I wanted those cookies. I wanted those cookies!!! So I took my boyfriends advice and tried to bake a batch of cookies that I hoped would be the duplicate of those cookies.

I ended up making the Jam Filled Butter Cookie recipe from allrecipes

Ingredients  (Makes about 18-20 medium sized cookies)
3/4 cup butter (at room temperature)
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup fruit preserves (I used strawberry jam)
Additions:
1/3 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon vanilla
 
To make the cookies, cream together the butter, white sugar, salt, vanilla and egg. Mix in flour a little bit at a time until a soft dough forms. Roll dough into 1 inch balls. Place balls 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Use your finger or an instrument of similar size to make a well in the center of each cookie. Fill the hole with 1/2 teaspoon of preserves. Bake at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes.

I made each cookie into about a 1 inch ball, placed them all on a baking sheet and which the palm of my hand I flattened them and with my thumb I made the little indent to place the jam. For the jam, I took a zip lock bag and placed the jam inside and cut a small little snippet off one of the corners to make a pastry bag. This helps to place the jam in the cookie easier than using a spoon to place the jam. When baking, the cookie does stay a very pale color as you will say in the pictures below but the bottom does start to brown. Be careful not to overcook. 

I received mixed reviews for this cookie. My mom and my brother, who like more of a subtle cookie that isn't too sugary or too sweet really enjoyed this cookie. It has a small hint of sugar but wasn't overpowering and they really liked that. When I make them again, I will probably make two batches. One will be the way I made them this time and the second batch will probably have a drizzle of glaze on the top to add a bit more sweetness for my personal taste. These cookies came no where close to the  store bought cookies I wanted, but they're still good cookies and they cured my craving.