Jam drops for Easter


Well, your Easter maybe.

I made these well over a week ago myself. March 23 to be exact, which I know only thanks to iPhoto and the magic that is digital time stamping. My own mental cataloguing system has been on the fritz these past few weeks.

In my experience, this faulty neural filing most commonly occurs when deadlines converge unexpectedly, causing the workday to stretch into workevening and evolve into worknight only to blend into workday again.

In this freelance netherworld, sleep is reduced to a wink and time is divvied by deadlines rather than days. By the time you remember to start blinking, your eyes have already developed that faint sandpaper sensation that makes closing them rather uncomfortable. The trudge from computer to kitchen to washroom becomes a much-anticipated diversion. Before long, you find yourself spooning cereal in the wee hours and craving a hamburger for breakfast.

Fortunately these whirlwinds have a way of disappearing almost as quickly as they develop, leaving a stack of dirty espresso cups and a sigh of relief behind.

That was Thursday. Today's Easter Monday and I still have a full week of vacation on the horizon. A chance to re-charge before the weather turns again.



Jam Drops
1 cup sugar
1 cup butter, unsalted
2 eggs
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder

jam (I used blackberry jamelly)
sweetened coconut

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Line baking sheets with parchment or silicone sheets and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Mix in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Add the flour and baking powder and mix just until combined.

Pour the sweetened coconut into a small bowl. Roll the dough into golf ball-sized spheres and drop them, one at a time, into the bowl of coconut. Make sure some coconut adheres to the outside of each ball, pressing lightly if necessary.

Set the balls on the prepared cookie sheets (12 per sheet). Use your thumb to make a small indentation in the centre of each ball, being careful not to crack the cookie. Fill the indentation with jam using a small spoon.

Bake at 375 degrees for 12 minutes, then broil for 1-2 minutes to brown the coconut. Watch them carefully!

Source: Mom's recipe file.

Notes: When I went to bake these cookies, I realized that Mom's recipe had been lost in The great MacBook Crash of Spring 2009. I went with something similar from an online source, but the original—collected later and described above—is still the best.

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