This PB&J Cookie Is All the things You Liked About Being a Child

Occupying the area between a basic thumbprint cookie and a peanut butter blossom, these peanut butter and jelly thumbprint cookies are a light-weight, just-sweet-enough deal with. A speedy cookie dough is enhanced with pure peanut butter, dotted with jam, and baked till simply set for a nutty, crumbly deal with with a gooey, fruity heart.

Conventional thumbprint cookies are primarily the American model of Swedish hallongrotta (“raspberry cave” in Swedish), a shortbread cookie with an indentation full of raspberry jam. In keeping with Nichole Accettola, creator of Scandinavian From Scratch, these cookies date again to the nineteenth century, once they have been served at espresso events generally known as kafferep. These events—at which seven several types of cookies, together with “caves,” have been served—popped up after Sweden lifted its nationwide ban within the 1820s. This custom, generally known as “sju sorters kakor,” was so essential it impressed a devoted cookbook of the identical identify revealed in 1945. 

Someplace alongside the best way, thumbprint cookies turned common in American households, with many cooks placing their very own spins on the cookie. It is not unusual for folks to include oatmeal or completely different nut flours into the dough or go for non-fruity fillings, resembling dulce de leche and chocolate-hazelnut spreads like Nutella. One variation of the basic thumbprint, the peanut butter blossom, options peanut butter cookies rolled in sugar, baked, after which stamped with Hershey’s Kisses earlier than they cool. The nutty cookie recipe was first revealed in 1957 when a lady named Freda Smith entered it into the Pillsbury Bake-Off contest. The cookie was initially known as a “Black-Eyed Susan,” and although Smith’s recipe didn’t win the grand prize, it has develop into so beloved nationally that it’s now printed on the again of Hershey’s Kiss luggage, and the cookie has been inducted into the Pillsbury Bake-Off Corridor of Fame.   

Skip the Unfold and Go Au Naturel

For probably the most management over the seasoning and fats content material of the dough, go for pure, unhomogenized, and unsweetened creamy peanut butter. Completely different manufacturers of sweetened peanut butter have various quantities of added sugar and oils that have an effect on the fats and sugar share of the dough. Search for a peanut butter with a brief ingredient listing: peanuts. In the event you can solely discover salted nut butter, that’s simply fantastic—the quantity included will not make the cookies overly salty, and also you don’t must lower the salt within the dough.

Seize Your Favourite Jam

Jam, which is made by slowly cooking fruit, sugar, and pectin till the fruit is damaged down, is the best choice for filling these cookies because it’s usually unfastened sufficient to spoon and unfold into the small thumbprint cookie indents. (Jellies, that are constructed from strained fruit juice, might be too gelatinous to spoon, whereas preserves, which include complete or chunks of fruit suspended in syrup, could also be too chunky.) I personally desire seedless raspberry or strawberry jam in these cookies, however grape jam is nice too. Different fruit jams, particularly these with citrus zest or heat spices, will work delightfully in these cookies, too.

For Uniform Cookies, Scoop Dough With a Disher

To make these cookies all the identical dimension within the least period of time, portion out the dough with a disher, often known as a cookie scoop. A #40 cookie scoop will measure roughly 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough. In the event you don’t have one, use your kitchen scale to weigh out 28 gram parts of dough. When you have neither, to not fear: You may eyeball it, however simply be mindful your cookies will not be as uniform as these portioned with a scoop or scale. From there, roll the dough along with your arms right into a ball, then use a spherical half-teaspoon measuring spoon to indent the middle of the cookies for the jam. To make sure the rolled-out cookies maintain their form whereas baking, chill the portioned dough within the freezer for 10 minutes. Richly nutty with candy, tangy jam, the cookies are a bite-size model of a basic peanut butter and jelly sandwich. In different phrases: a scrumptious blast from the previous.

July 2025

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