#9 Jelly Centers 1948

Thumbprint Cookies with apricot, strawberry and blackberry centers.

A Thumbprint Cookie by any other name ... is still a thumbprint cookie. In 1948, these were called Jelly Centers. OK, so that is also descriptive.

The dough for these cookies is firm and can be rolled into little balls immediately, although it does ask for 2 hours of chilling. The recipe calls for a 3-to-1 flour-to-butter ratio, and the equivalent of an egg (actually, two yolks) per cup of flour. Compared to the floppier doughs I've been mixing, this has a higher solid to liquid ratio. The egg yolks add richness to the recipe.

After baking two batches on different days, I did not get the baking time just right. They got a bit overcooked when I turned off the oven after 15 minutes and left them in to evaporate the butter that bubbled at the edges. Then, after chilling the dough a couple of days, 10-12 minutes of baking was not enough; the dough inside remained uncooked and, well, doughy.

Maybe if I'd followed the instructions perfectly - chilling the dough first - they would not have leaked their butter and caused me to give them extra baking time. Maybe if I hadn't gotten oven-shy on the second go-round, I would not have tried to remove them from the oven too early. Another lesson in following the directions.

However, I have had consistent success with a Betty Crocker version; a similar recipe is here. I recommend it over the Gourmet recipe, with one exception. Use the lemon zest - always a nice addition.

TOOLS: I like to use a very sharp Microplane grater for the zest. You'll be able to grate the yellow flavorful part of the lemon, without any of the puckering pith.


I have seen three sets of instructions for applying egg white, nuts and jam to these cookies. The Gourmet Cookie Book version, the earliest recipe, is the most labor-intensive. You are supposed to:

Roll the dough into balls, press an indentation with your little finger, paint the surface of each with beaten egg yolk, then sprinkle each top with finely chopped almonds and sugar. Put jam in the indentations after baking. I'm tired just thinking about it.

Easiest prep: Dip dough in egg white, then nuts; place
dipped side up on baking sheet, and poke a place for jam.

The Betty Crocker version is much easier. You dip one side of each ball in lightly beaten egg white, then the nuts (no sugar). This way the toppings are already on when you make the indentation with your finger - a real time-saver. Again, according to this recipe, the jam goes in the holes after baking.

I've never understood the jam-after-cooking order of things. I have always put the jam in the little holes before baking. Slightly hardened from baking in the oven, the jam becomes more condensed and more a part of the cookies. That's how I always did it. Finally, I found the online recipe (as above) that does it my way.

With ingredients like this,
the cookies couldn't be all bad.

I tried four different jams with the cookies. The Sicilian Orange Marmalade and my homemade apricot jam were tart and complemented the cookies well. My blackberry jam (albeit homemade) had too many seeds and distracted from the smoother cookie texture. The strawberry jam was a bit sweet and not interesting enough. I'd choose a tart fruit jam, maybe one I'd specifically made with less sugar.

NOTE about nuts: I've never worried that the nuts were not blanched. Unblanched nuts add texture to the cookie's appearance, whereas blanched nuts look more pristine and refined. You might want a particular look depending on the other cookies that are on the same plate. You can decide by the way you want them to look, or by what is in your freezer. 

TIP: Keep nuts in the freezer to prolong their life.

This recipe is here and here.

Which do you prefer - blanched almonds (above)
or unblanched (below)?