Made these for Christmas. I doubled the creamcheese like one other reviewer. Everyone said they tasted like bakery cookies, and they looked like bakery cookies, too. I don't even have a quality cookie sheet and the bottoms were perfect. I used strawberry preserves for half and orange marmalade for the other half. I did not garnish with powdered sugar. The jewel tones of the filling were pretty enough.
Probably the best cookies I have ever made. This recipe definitely made me look like a good baker. Thanks.
This is a great recipe. I read some other reviews that described this cookie recipe as bland, but I would change that to subtle. The flavors aren't bold, but I think that is a wonderful thing. If you are making a cookie platter, the last thing you want are all the cookies to be screaming with over-sweetness & repeating flavors. This is so nice because the cream chees & butter give a really rich dough & the apricot just gives a faint sweetness. I rolled the dough out, & spread the jam on the top & rolled like a jelly roll & then cut the cookies to make pinwheels which is a nice variation. I had another butter cookie recipe with the raspberry imprints, & so this was more of a variation then just the traditional print cookies. Another nice thing is that it makes a LOT of cookies, it strained my Kitchen-Aid a little on the lower speeds but I only because I dumped in all the flour at once. Add the flour slowly & you will avoid this! Overall, very, very, yummy!!!
These cookies make a lovely presentation. I tried them with both apricot & red raspberry preserves. Both were very good. After baking a few pans, I saw the suggestion to roll the dough in confectioner's sugar before baking. This made them easier to work with. I will make these cookies again.
What a great cookie!! This is the type of taste that my family loves - not bland but not over sweet. Since this made so many, I was able to experiment with each tray that went into the oven. I put different flavored jams on several dozen - including Hot Pepper Jelly (it was a hit). One batch, I rolled the cookie first into ground walnuts. I did end up sprinkling each batch with powdered sugar except those rolled in nuts. Next time, I'm going to try rolling in colored granulated sugar. Here's 3 BIG tips: 1. I prefer to bake on parchment paper. 2. With this cookie, I used the smaller end of my Melon Baller to make the indent instead of using my finger (I have nails). I held my fingers around the ball shape and then pressed gently with the rounded side of the Melon Baller - almost to the bottom of the cookie. This gave the cookies uniform indents and reasonable size to fill with the jam. Dip the Melon Baller in powdered sugar first to prevent sticking. 3. Put the lemon in the microwave for 15 seconds before zesting and juicing. I was able to get 2 Tbls. juice out of one half of the lemon. I refrigerated the dough before rolling into balls and had no problems. This recipe would be great for a Cookie Exchange. Definetly was a hit with everyone and was told to make them again. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Very tasty and easy to make. Next time I'll line my cookie sheet with aluminum foil - baked-on jam is hard to clean off!
I love this recipe! We had a cookie exchange and my mom made this recipe and it was the best cookie at the party! I normally don't care for filled cookies, but the cream cheese makes it delicious. The one thing that my mom did differently to make it easier was to roll the balls in powdered sugar before she pressed them with her thumb. It made them a little sweeter and much less sticky.
These are excellent! I decided to make the batter chill overnight and cook the next day. That didn't happen exactly.. after about 5 minutes in the fridge I took out the dough and made a quick batch to try out. The dough worked well even not chilled very long. I used 3 jellies - Apricot Raspberry(as others suggested) and Apple (b/c I had it in the house). The Winner - Apple! It is hard to beat the other flavors but apple was just different enough to win. Also I made the original recipe size and used 2 sticks regular butter 1 stick unsalted butter. When cooling - I did 2 minutes on the pan 2 minutes on the wire rack then put the cookies and rack in to the freezer for 2 minutes then let them continue cooling on rack on the counter. I am not sure why but cooling them slightly in the freezer always helps them stay moist longer. Excellent reviews! Even from long-time picky cookie makers!
Okay recipe. Would add more flour and extra vanilla if I made it again.
These cookies are fabulous! I don't usually make thumbprints but after reading all the good reviews I thought I'd give these a try. I filled half with apricot preserves and half with lemon pie filling and everyone loved them. I will definitely be making these again.
