After the Gilmore Park Church Community Kitchen Christmas Potluck, a few of us went to Peace Mennonite Church Community Kitchen for a cookie making session. This cookies making session is sponsored by Family Services and demonstrated by Charlene.

We made 2 types of cookies, one filled with raspberry jam and the other one is just holiday cutout cookies decorated with icings. The dough for both the cookies are the same except that for the holiday cutout cookies, the dough has to be refrigerated for a firmer texture.

Ingredients

For cookies:

• 2 1/2 cups (11 1/4 oz) all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (8oz) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• zest of 1 lemon, grated
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

For filing:

• 1/2 cup raspberry jam

For glaze:

• 1 cup confectioner’s sugar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• drop of almond extract (optional)

Click on Read More for the instructions.

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

In a medium bowl, sieve the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In another medium bowl, cut up the butter for easier creaming. The butter should be in room temperature. However, on the day we had this cookie making session, it was a very cold day and the butter was still relatively hard.

Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes, using a hand mixer.

Zest the lemon. Add the lemon zest to the butter/sugar mixture.

Add the lemon juice to the butter/sugar mixture.

Add vanilla extract and beat until blended.

Add the flour mixture, in a few batches, and blend well. Divide the dough equally into 6 logs. If the dough is very soft, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until slightly firmer.

Fill a ziplock bag with jam, snip off one tiny corner of the ziplock bag.

Grease two baking sheets or line with parchment paper.Remove dough from refrigerator and unwrap. Roll each log into a 12-inch rope, then place on the baking sheets and flatten slightly. Use a chopstick, spoon handle or your finger to make an indentation in the center of the log.

Squeeze a thin line of jam into the depression in each log. Do not fill with too much jam or else the jam will overflow.

Bake in a 350F preheated oven until the cookie strips are lightly browned, about 20 minutes. Let the cookie strips cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cutting board. With a serrated knife, slice each log diagonally into 12 pieces, but dont separate. Leave to cool.Make a glaze by combining confectioner’s sugar, lemon juice, and almond extract, if using. When the cookies have completely cooled, drizzle glaze with a fork or fill a ziplock bag and snip a tiny corner to drizzle. Separate slices. Cookies may be stored in an airtight container for one week.

Some of the attendees prefer to make thumbprint cookies. So, they made a batch of them.

The thumbprint cookies were filled with raspberry jam and bake until lightly browned.