Do you know what a sugar plum is? And if you do know what it is, have you ever had one? My knowledge of sugar plums totals two things. First, from ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, I know that children have “visions of sugar plums dance in their heads,” when they go to sleep. And second, in the Nutcracker ballet there is a dance called The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. I know literally nothing else about sugar plums, but then last week Ryan and I received a jar of sugar plum jam as a Christmas present and I decided to do some research. I also decided to use that jam to make thumbprint cookies.
First, I went to Wikipedia and the article was a little confusing. Then I found this article from The Atlantic. And what I gathered is that traditionally sugar plums have no actual plums in them! Sugar plums where a type of candy – and possibly difficult to make, special, and expensive. The article speculates on reasons why it’s called a sugar “plum” but comes to no definitive conclusion. Alas. But, my jam does have real plums in it so obviously time changes things. The jam also has orange and lemon juices and “spices.” The ingredients list doesn’t specify the spices, but it tastes like your usual holiday suspects – cinnamon and nutmeg.
If you haven’t tried sugar plum jam, I recommend it. It’s sweet and just the slightest bit tart in a way that reminds me of cranberry sauce. It’s lovely. I wouldn’t put it on a pb&j, but I’d use the jam on toast or baked on top of a wheel of brie. It also goes really well on this very buttery thumbprint cookie. The heavier rich flavor of the jam is a good complement to the soft and flaky cookie. It’s so nice – but feel free to use whatever jam you have. We also used some raspberry jam and that was really good too.
I think these are good sharing cookies. They are easy to make, look nice even when a little bit messy, and they taste delightful. Plus it’s so easy, make the dough, make a ball, flatten with your thumb, plop some jam on, and bake.
The recipe for the cookies comes from FoodNetwork.com
Messy level: Two spoons. This is your basic drop cookies where you need just two bowls and a baking sheet to complete this recipe. If you get crazy with the jam you might get some drips and spills, but in this case I think it adds to the cookies’ charm and can’t be counted as a real mess.
- 1¾ cups/ 224 grams all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup/ 171 grams unsalted butter, softened
- ⅔ cup/ 134 grams caster sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- sugar plum jam, or jam of your choice
- Preheat the oven to 350/180°.
- Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Using a stand mixer, or a handheld mixer with a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. This takes about 5 minutes.
- Add half the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Mix until mostly incorporated. Then add the second half of the flour mixture and mix until just incorporated.
- Using your hands, or an ice cream scoop, make 1 inches balls of dough.
- Place the balls of dough 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. These cookies spread A LOT!!
- Use your thumb, or the back of a spoon, to make an indentation in the center of the cookies.
- Spoon a dollop of jam into the indentation you just made. I didn't measure the amount of jam I used but think somewhere between ½-3/4 teaspoon.
- Bake for 13-15 minutes, or until the edges are just golden. Turn the baking sheet halfway through baking to ensure the cookies come out baked evenly.
- Let them cool then eat with a cup of tea.
