All right, so it’s a holiday weekend, and I’m not at the beach. I guess I’m just going have to accept the fact that the closest my feet will come to sand this weekend is when I perform the lovely task of cleaning out Brenna’s litter box. So what’s a girl to do with a whole weekend, one in which she will be enjoying her last days of joblessness? That’s right, I got the job I’ve spent the better part of the week interviewing for. Whoop Whoop! Well, hopefully I’ll get a day to play around with gum paste flowers that I need to make for my neighbor’s upcoming wedding in a few weeks. I have a basic idea of what I’m going for, but I need to make sure that my “in theory flowers” can actually become “in reality” flowers. If not, I guess I’ll be going back to square one, and coming up with another cake design. I really hope my current idea works though, because I think it will make an extremely cute and whimsical wedding cake.
Speaking of the beach that I won’t be going to, how tropical are these thumbprint cookies? Remember I’ve been craving anything and everything with coconut lately. So much so, that I’ve already made these cookies twice. Okay, I admit it; I had to make them twice because I forgot to take photos of them the first time around. I took these cookies as a gift to some wonderful new neighbors B.O.B. Bob and I have recently been introduced to. They hosted a neighborhood happy hour for a bunch of us “Herndon Peeps” to get to know one another better. They were crazy good at hosting such an event, serving the most amazing food in their absolutely gorgeous home. I never would have thought about having a “hummus bar,” but I think it has great potential to become the newest thing for catered events. It also didn’t hurt that the hosts happen to have two of the cutest dogs a person could ever encounter, one being a puppy. Squee! How could anyone not love a puppy?
The second round of cookies didn’t go to waste either. They were the perfect treat to take with me to my neighbor’s bachelorette party at Bull Run Campground. Normally I am not a fan of wedding showers; just ask anyone who knows me well. In my opinion, the only thing worse is a baby shower, and yes, I have one of those coming up as well. Sigh! Thank goodness that this was probably the best bachelorette party I’ve ever been to. Just a bunch of girls sitting around the campfire, playing games, and not any of those crappy make a dress out of toilet paper games either. Linda, the host, did a wonderful job entertaining us with some non-traditional games that didn’t make any of us feel like we wanted to pass out from boredom. You can guarantee that I’ll be wearing my bachelorette party ring to the wedding a few weeks from now, because I like weddings; I can do weddings, just as long they don’t involve games. Hopefully that never becomes the “in thing” to do, I don’t think I could handle it.
P.S. A huge thanks to my mom and dad, who on their recent trip to Florida, picked up the jar of Orange Pineapple Cherry Marmalade that I used to make these cookies. There’s still just enough left to make one more batch of cookies, so maybe I’ll bring a few up to you guys the next time I visit.
Ingredients:
- 1 Cup Irish Butter, Room Temperature
- 1/3 Cup Granulated Sugar
- 1/3 Cup Light Brown Sugar, Packed
- 1 Tablespoon Vanilla
- 2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1/2 Cup Orange Pineapple Cherry Marmalade
- 1/3 Cup Toasted Coconut Chips, Crumbled
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Cream butter and sugars on medium speed for 3 minutes.
- Add vanilla; mix on medium speed for 1 minute.
- Slowly add the flour a half a cup at a time on low speed, until the flour is just incorporated.
- Form 1-inch balls out of the dough and place them on a parchment paper or Silpat lined baking sheet.
- Using your thumb, create a well in the middle of each ball.
- Fill each cookie’s well with a bit of the marmalade, and then top with the crumbled coconut.
- Bake for 8 to 9 minutes, or just until the bottom edge of the cookies begin to turn golden brown.
- Allow cookies to rest for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, before attempting to remove them to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
Suggestions:
- If using normal butter in this recipe, you may need to add a bit more flour. You will want just enough moisture in the dough to allow you to roll the cookie into ball shapes. An additional 1/4-cup of all-purpose flour should do the trick.
- You can substitute any tropical flavored preserve or marmalade in this recipe.
- Substitute shredded coconut if you cannot find coconut chips; I found mine at Safeway.
- This recipe will yield approximately two dozen cookies.
Improvements:
- Add one teaspoon of coconut or pineapple extract in addition to the vanilla.
- Sprinkle the cookies with finely chopped macadamia nuts before baking.
