I pulled this recipe from www.allrecipes.com some months ago, because a friend had just made plum jam with plums from the tree in her backyard. I wanted to use it in something I could give back to her, as well as enjoy myself. So, much searching turned up this recipe, though really, you could use any sort of jam.
The recipe itself, though highly rated, has a few problems. It calls for baking soda in the instructions, but not in the directions. I looked up some other basic rolled sugar cookie recipes, and none of them used baking soda, so I left it out. Then it called for brown sugar, which I thought made it heavy. Finally, it had the very un-cookie-like ingredient of water! In the end, the batter was coarse and heavy, though easy to work with. Maybe that was the point.
I used a tiny star cutter that came in a set of three fondant shape cutters to cut out the center, a chopstick to push out dough out of the cutter, and a 2-1/4" biscuit cutter for the main part. I managed to roll the dough mostly to the 1/4" thickness recommended, but between the dough thickness, the sandwiching, and the diameter, overall it made for a big heavy cookie!
My new spatula was invaluable for handling the cut-out dough pieces. I knew there would be a good reason to drag my husband to Sur La Table to browse for stuff I wasn't quite sure how I'd use! (He's come to dread going out to restaurants near cooking stores.)
With the last pieces of rolled-out batter, I used the middle-sized star cutter for the main part, and the same tiny cutter for the center. That was a much better proportion, and made for a very attractive little bite-sized cookie. Next time, I'd make all of them that size.
Ironically, my friend's plum jam didn't have the right consistency, so I used some of her scrumptious apricot jam instead. That was stickier and thicker, and perfect for sticking two cookie halves together.
The recipe called for baking the cookies already assembled with the jam, which I like since the jam got a sort of film on top, making the cookies a lot easier to handle and transport.
Overall, I can't recommend the cookie recipe itself, but the basic technique of sandwiching two dough cutouts together and baking them with the jam is sound. I'm pleased with the equipment I had too (I sense another trip to Michael's for more fondant cutter shapes is in my near future). I'll use the Joy of Cooking's sugar cookie recipe for the dough next time. And most definitely my friend's apricot jam again!
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