Summer Fruit Thumbprint Cookies

About a month ago, I went blueberry picking. It’s a bit of a drive from my house to the blueberry patch, so I usually tend to stock up when I’m there. And since the price is so much better than grocery stores, you’d be crazy not to put some in the freezer.

When it comes to preserving summer fruit and berries, I’m kind of a hoarder. A stingy hoarder, especially of anything I’ve picked or purchased locally. For those who like to keep their food sources local where possible, you know how fleeting “in season” really is. We enjoy some of the harvest right after we get it, then the rest hides in the freezer until a few months before the next harvest. I did that with blueberries I picked two years ago. In my efforts not to use them too quickly, I almost forgot about them.

This year, I resolved not to do that. And while baking isn’t always popular during the summer, sometimes you have to make an exception for a delicious, fruit-filled cookie. The following is a recipe adapted from an old cookbook that belonged to one of my grandmothers. (The cookbook is featured in the filled sugar cookie post I did about a year ago. Not including the index, the thing has 975 pages. It’s quite educational to see what’s changed between 1950 and now.) The recipe I played with this time is “Sour Cream Sugar Cookies”. Unlike the sugar cookie most of us know, this one contains spices, and either nuts or raisins. I eliminated those ingredients in my version.

“But you eliminated all the flavor!” I can hear someone wail. Well, actually those ingredients were exchanged for something else; orange zest and oil. (Oil is far more potent than extract.)

Since the original recipe didn’t include a fruit filling, I had to guess on amounts for mine. This is a large cookie recipe, and two cups of berries wasn’t quite enough. The following recipe is adjusted. To fill the remaining cookies I used apricot jam from the grocery store. If you don’t want to make your own filling, there will be no judgment here if you use store-bought jam.

Filling

3 c. Blueberries, fresh or frozen

¾ c. Cane Sugar

Place berries in a saucepan and cover with lid. Place over medium-low heat and keep covered until they start to produce juice. Once you have juice in the pan add the sugar. Stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. If you don’t want chunks of fruit in the filling, the mixture can be pureed with a stick blender or counter-top blender. (I used the single-serve container on my Ninja.) Put the pureed filling back on the heat and allow the liquid to reduce until the consistency is like a soft-gelled jam. Remove from heat and set aside.

Cookies

4 ½ c. Cake Flour

½ tsp. Salt

1 tsp. baking soda

3 tsp. Baking Powder (I prefer aluminum-free)

1 c. Shortening (Spectrum)

2 Eggs

2 c. Sour Cream

1 1/3 c. Brown Sugar

1 tbsp. Orange Zest

½ tsp. Orange Oil

Preheat oven to 350°. Mix and sift dry ingredients. Cut in shortening until you have fine crumbs, pea size or smaller. Combine eggs, sour cream, sugar, zest and oil. Add to dry ingredients. Portion dough onto cookie sheets. Use a small spoon to make an indention in the center of each cookie. Place a spoonful of filling in each center. Bake 15-20 minutes.

The original recipe says it yields 7 dozen cookies (2 ½”). I got a little over 5 dozen. Most of my cookies were about 3”. I use a “tablespoon” from the silverware drawer and eyeball my portions. Your yield may be different, depending on the method you use to portion your dough.

These are soft, cake-like cookies. Especially during the summer months, I would recommend storing them in the refrigerator. You may like icing on them, but I would recommend one that dries hard. Otherwise you might have soggy cookies. I like them with cinnamon sugar. Use demerara sugar. It has large, crunchy crystals and tastes like brown sugar.

The Project Queen