“2013 Creative Pay-It-Forward: The first five people to comment on this status will receive from me, sometime in the next calendar year, a gift – perhaps a book, or baked goods, or a candle, music, or a surprise! There will likely be no warning and it will happen whenever the mood strikes me. The catch? Those five people must make the same offer in their FB status. Who’s in?”

That’s how this recipe came to be.  At the beginning of 2013, I posted the above statement on Facebook, and was surprised and delighted to see which five people responded first.  I’ve had a great time fulfilling my Pay-It-Forward gifts this year.  My special gifts have included Lola’s Chocolate Ginger Cookies (So sad to see them go out of business after so many years of providing NOVA with such delicious treats!), a New Kids on the Block Audio CD, a beautiful framed black and white picture of someone very special to me that was taken by my father years ago while he was taking photography classes, and a Redskins Zombie Gnome.

I’ve enjoyed coming up with the perfect gift for each participant in my Pay-It-Forward challenge, and I hope they in turn have received just as much joy from it.  My final Pay-It-Forward gift for 2013 was to bake these cookies for my “sister-in-law’s” sister-in-law Kathy, who lives near Richmond, VA.  I’ve known since the beginning of the year that I would be creating a special recipe just for her.  She and her mother have expressed their admiration of my homemade recipe cards several times in my presence.  (I have been creating them for my “sister-in-law” Linda for many years now.)  So it was only natural that I would make a personalized one just for her to enjoy.  I really hope you adore the cookies Kathy, and I can’t wait to find out who makes my list for 2014.  (If you want to take part in the 2014 Pay-It-Forward Challenge, be one of the first 5 people to respond to my Facebook Pay-It-Forward post on January 1, 2014.)

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup Unsalted Butter, Softened
• 1/3 Cup Granulated Sugar
• 1/3 Cup Light Brown Sugar
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla
• 2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
• 1/2 (13-oz.) Jar of Apricot Preserves (Bonne Maman)
• Freshly Ground Sea Salt
• 1/4 Cup Sliced Almonds
• 1/2 Cup White Morsels
• 1 Teaspoon Crisco

Directions:

1. Cream butter and sugars together for 2 minutes, on medium speed.
2. Add vanilla; mix 30 seconds, on medium speed.
3. Add the flour a half a cup at a time, on low speed; mix just until incorporated.
4. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
6. Shape dough into 1-inch balls.
7. Place balls 2-inches apart on a Silpat or parchment paper lined baking sheet.
8. Using your thumb, press an indentation into the center of each ball.
9. Spoon preserves into the indentation of each cookie, sprinkle with sea salt and top with almonds.
10. Bake for 11 minutes, or until the edges are lightly browned.
11. Cool cookies on cookies sheets for 3 minutes, before removing them to a wire cooling rack.
12. Microwave white morsels with Crisco in a small bowl for 1 minute, stir, microwave for 15 seconds, stir again, microwave for 15 more seconds, and stir again.
13. Drizzle mixture over the cooled cookies with the tines of a fork or a plastic decorating squeeze bottle; allow cookies to set for two hours.
14. Store the cookies in an airtight container.

Suggestions:

Chilling the dough for 1 hour or more will make it much easier to work with.

Using a decorating squeeze bottle creates a much more desirable drizzle pattern.

Place sheets of waxed paper between each layer of cookies when storing.

Improvements:

Replace the vanilla with a teaspoon of almond extract.

A Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Original Recipe

Created for Kathy DeNunzio

Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck

-Colleen