Jam Tart Cookies

This morning my daughter woke up with a 101 degree fever :( We call this "mystery fever" at our house - as both my kids get this phenomenon occasionally. Just a fever for a few days - sometimes with headache, body ache, feeling hot & miserable, alternating with chills ... sometimes it turns into strep throat - but usually, it is just a few days of fever that can be controlled with motrin/tylenol and Sprite and toast - and lying on the couch and watching too many hours of cartoons.


It was a sad morning as this is our last day of school before Christmas break - and the classes had all planned Christmas parties. But we just rested all morning - after which time I had to go in to work for a few hours to take care of some business and allow the other secretary to get on the road to see her family in South Dakota.


After we came home, Anna felt better - the medicine had fully kicked in! She had gotten a WONDERFUL book (can't get a copy of the cover) from a friend for Christmas - Samantha's Cooking Studio from the American Girl books series. I had promised we'd try a recipe out of it today - and since Anna was better, after much hand washing, we picked a recipe to make. It turned out so lovely that I want to share it ... I hope I am not breaking some copy right law by doing that - but no doubt this is a traditional recipe that can be found in other cookbooks as well!
We picked Jam Tart Cookies to try.

INGREDIENTS:
1/4 cup jam (we used strawberry)

1 cup butter, softened

1/3 cup sugar

1 3/4 cups flour

pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spoon jam into a small bowl and stir until it is smooth. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until they are light and fluffy.

In a separate bowl, mix together flour and salt. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and blend until a dough is formed (I ended up using my hands!).

Pinch off bits of dough and roll them into 1 inch balls. Place the balls on a baking sheet about 1 inch apart (we did this - but also used part of the dough - rolled it & cut small cookies out w/ the butterfly cookie cutter that was included with the book).

Press your finger into the center of each cookie to make a "well." Fill each well with approx. 1/4 tsp of jam.

Bake for 10 minutes. Cool completely. Enjoy with a cup of tea!

Just what the doctor ordered!!