Lemon Marmalade Meringue Thumbprint Cookies

I finally found a use for my Wilton Gold Star Edible Accents, that I wrote about here in February. I made these cookies for a Herndon Town Council Member Meet & Greet that I was unable to attend over the weekend. What started off as a simple recipe quickly got out of hand; it’s always the glaze, drizzle, or icing that goes wrong for me. Not to mention the fact that I had to make my own Lemon Marmalade, which ended up being a complete nuisance. The only bright side to this is that I now have enough marmalade to make at least three more batches of these cookies, which are absolutely perfect for springtime.

It’s been a long time since I’ve worked with melted marshmallows, probably since I was in the 8th grade and had to make a bazillion Rice Krispies Treats in home economics for the dances held at the school. I think that’s the only food we actually ever made in the class, and because of that I have refused to make rice krispies treats ever since, although I’m pretty sure I’ve got the recipe memorized by heart. A little heads up, cooking with melted marshmallows totally sucks, its right up there with caramel in my opinion. You have to work insanely fast, because the molten hot liquid seizes up crazy fast as it comes back to room temperature, and afterwards you’re stuck figuring out how to store the treat you’ve just made, because it’s insanely sticky. I tried using a plastic decorating bottle to drizzle the marshmallow mixture at first, but that didn’t work out so well for me. By the time I was done drizzling three cookies, the marshmallow had already thickened too much to come out of the bottle. Next time I make these, I’ll just leave the sticky drizzle in the saucepan, so that I can reheat it as needed.

I had these golden beauties wrapped up and ready to go in the awesome cardboard boxes that B.O.B. Bob gave me for Christmas, when I suddenly thought how perfect the gold stars would look on them. I wasn’t about to open all of the boxes, that I’d tied together with the bakers twine that I recently purchased from Cute Tape, until I realized that I had forgotten to take any pictures of the cookies. SIGH! This is an ongoing problem that I am encountering, and it almost always occurs when I’m making something to give away. Usually I remember just as I’m handing over the finished goodies. This time it worked in my favor though, I cut the string, reopened all of the boxes, took some pictures, and then sprinkled the gooey cookies with the edible stars. Sometimes we find a silver lining in our mistakes, or in this case gold.

Ingredients:

Cookies:

1 Cup Unsalted Butter, Softened
1/3 Cup Granulated Sugar
1/3 Cup Light Brown Sugar, Packed
2 Teaspoons Vanilla
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1/2 Cup Lemon Marmalade

Drizzle:

3 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter
3 Cups Mini Marshmallows
1/2 Teaspoon Kosher Salt
2 Teaspoons Vanilla
1 Cup Powdered Sugar

Accents:

Wilton Gold Star Edible Accents – Available at Wilton, Amazon, & Michaels

Directions:

Cream butter and sugars together for 2 minutes, on medium speed.
Add vanilla and salt; mix 30 seconds, on medium speed.
Add the flour a half a cup at a time, on low speed; mix just until incorporated.
Cover with plastic wrap and chill for half an hour.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Shape dough into 1-inch balls.
Place balls 2-inches apart on a Silpat or parchment paper lined baking sheet.
Using your thumb, press an indentation into the center of each ball.
Spoon marmalade into the indentation of each cookie.
Bake for 10 minutes, or until the edges are lightly browned.
Cool cookies on baking sheet for 5 minutes, before removing them to a wire cooking rack.
In a medium saucepan, melt the butter, marshmallows, and salt together; making sure to stir constantly.
Once the mixture is completely lump free, turn off the heat and stir in the vanilla.
Add the powdered sugar, and then stir until the mixture is completely smooth.
Drizzle the marshmallow mixture over the cookies with the tines of a fork.
Sprinkle the thumbprint cookies with the edible gold star accents.
Package cookies in airtight containers.

Suggestions:

Search your local market or store to see if they have lemon jam available, which will make this recipe much easier to make.
Sift the powdered sugar, before adding it to the marshmallow mixture.
The marshmallow mixture will seize up as it cools, so you will want to work very fast when drizzling the mixture over the cookies. If it becomes too thick to work with, put it back on the stove and reheat it.
Make sure to place a piece of foil underneath the cooling racks, before you begin to add the drizzle to the cookies, it will make cleanup much easier.
Place these cookies in a single layer when storing, do not attempt to stack them; the drizzle is super sticky.