jam cookies

The other day my husband and I had gone to a nearby place for coffee. It is a café cum bakery. While I was choosing a muffin to have with my cup of coffee my husband’s eyes fell on the jam cookies displayed at the counter. They were sitting in a tall glass jar and looked beautiful with that spoonful of round jelly like jam in the middle. My husband said “they look so tempting”. To this I asked him “should we buy some?” “No, not now” he replied back. I wondered “why not?”

Anyway, days passed, and we both forgot about the jam cookies. Then Sunday came. Now, generally we like relaxing at home on a Sunday afternoon and get out for coffee with friends in the evening. Since I was not slumberous enough to sleep through the afternoon, I decided to have some fun baking in the kitchen. The chocolate chunk cookies that I had baked earlier finished days back, so I planned to bake another lot of cookies. That is when I remembered how the jam cookies at the café had tempted my husband.  Hence the “Sunday:my-bakery special” turned out to be the jam cookies.

Commonly cookies available at the coffee shops are made of all-purpose flour (maida) but since tii (my sis-in-law) and I like to eat healthy and my father-in-law too is not very fond of maida products I decided to make a few changes in the general cookie recipe. For example, I substituted some quantity of the maida with atta(healthier flour as compared to maida) and a certain portion of white sugar with brown one.

So in the afternoon, while my husband was busy listening to music I gathered all the ingredients in one place (maida, atta, egg, butter, oil, vanilla extract, baking powder, salt, white sugar, brown sugar, almonds and jam). I brought the butter to room temperature and put some of it with a few big spoons of olive oil in a bowl. I added white and brown sugar to it and mixed it all well. I then broke in an egg into the mixture and gave it all a good whisk. On the other side, I brought together all the dry ingredients (maida, atta, a pinch of salt baking powder and chopped almonds). Getting back to the egg mixture, I added vanilla extract to it and mixed it all well. Then I mixed the dry ingredient mix into the egg mix and formed dough.

While I was making and shaping cookies out of the dough, I had put the oven to preheat at 180 degree Celsius (for the jam cookies, one can make them in any shape, however, create a shallow space with the tip of your thumb or the back of a small spoon at the middle of the cookie to place the jam).  Once the oven reached the set temperature, I placed the cookie tray in it, and let the cookies bake for ten minutes. After ten minutes I took the tray out and placed a little jam at the centre of each cookie. Then, I put the cookie tray back in the oven and let them bake for another five minutes. The cookies turned golden around the edges. Placing them on the rack, I left them to cool. After thirty minutes, I placed the cookies in the refrigerator for another thirty minutes to let the jelly like jam set.

The cookies were then ready to be enjoyed with a cup of tea or coffee. Everybody at my place simply loved them.

These jam cookies are an amazing yet healthy option for kids who hate roti (Indian flat bread). A glass of milk and these cookies in the evening make a wholesome supper. The worried mothers can make them in different shapes like star or heart to make them attractive for the kids. I too made cookies in the shape of a heart and the initials of my husband’s and my name besides the usual round ones (I confess at times I am a cheesy romantic :p).

healthy jam cookies and milk=wholesome evening supper

To enjoy the taste of home-baked jam cookies collect these ingredients

This recipe makes 7 medium-sized cookies and 10 small cookies.

Ingredients of the dry mix

 

v  ½ cup all-purpose flour

v  1 cup atta

v  1tbsp baking powder

v  Pinch of salt

v  Chopped almonds

Ingredients of the wet mix

v  3 tbsp butter

v  4 tbsp olive oil

v  ½ cup brown sugar

v  ¼ cup white sugar

v  1.5 tbsp vanilla extract

v  1 egg

Jam for topping.

Mix the dry ingredients together on one side and the wet ones on the other. Bring both the mixtures together to form dough. Shape the cookies. Bake them. Top the cookies with jam and bake a little more (exact timing and temperature already mentioned above). Let them cool. Jam cookies are ready :D.

P.S.: if you try them at home, let me know how they turned out :).