Fancy Cake For Practice

After making so many cookies, I got very comfortable with royal icing and the piping bags and the whole routine of it.  I was asked to make a cake (or three) for my office and realized I was way out of practice in just CAKES: my first love. So I set out to make a tester just to get back in the groove.

I chose the Joy of Cooking's basic white cake because I'm always eager to try staples that have withstood the test of time.  I was also very eager to try out a few new bits and bobs as recommended by the cake queen, Rose Levy Beranbaum.  That lady is amazing. I'm talking so meticulous and exact, I read The Cake Bible with my jaw gaping. How to open and close the oven door?? (She says GENTLY so as not to force too much of the heated air out).  In awe of her.  SO. I got to try out, 1. Evenbake Cake Strips and Baker's Joy flour spray.  I used the spray on both layers (and a parchment round on the bottom just to be safe) then the cake strip on #1 and no cake strip on #2.  Take a look:



IT WORKS! So beautifully!  Look how even and golden #1 - the cake stripped layer - is! And the other, same cooking time AND in the back of my oven which is traditionally cooler, is darker and has a round center.  I will never EVER bake without cake strips again. Wonderful!  (And the layers slipped right out of the pans with the flour spray so a win on both new experiments!)

So I was basically playing around with decorating and trying to make it fancy schmancy.  I piped the border of buttercream around the inside edge of each layer then filled with a basic strawberry filling (because I felt like it).  Did the crumb coat and smoothed all the lines, etc, etc.  When I went to pipe the decoration though? woo boy. Rough.  Buttercream is most certainly NOT as agreeable as royal icing. Sure, it tastes better but it's just ornery! Go where I want you to, buttercream!!

And, for my own amusement, when we went to cut into it, I tried a new cut technique that I saw in a cake magazine so we got rectangle cuts from a round cake. Like wedding cake pieces! I just thought they were darling (and had a hankering for some white wedding cake).  Just cut all the way across, off center (however long you want a piece) then start cutting perpendicular from that line! Kinda want to do all my round cakes this way now.  No skinny triangle edge! All even square!

The recipe was pretty good but not going in my favorites box. It was dense but not heavy and was a solid, vanilla cake. The family liked it but I'll keep looking for the perfect white cake...

 

WHITE CAKE
The Joy of Cooking

3 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 2/3 cups sugar + 1/3 cup
8 large egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Preheat oven to 375 F. Have all ingredients at room temperature.  Grease and flour two 8 x 2-inch or 9 x 2-inch round cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper.

Whisk together first three dry ingredients thoroughly in a medium bowl.  Combine milk, vanilla and almond extract in a separate bowl or liquid measuring cup.

Beat butter in a large bowl until creamy.  Gradually add 1 2/3 cups sugar and beat until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes.  On low speed, add the flour mixture in 3 parts, alternating with the milk mixture in 2 parts, beating until smooth.  Using clean beaters, beat egg whites and cream of tartar in another large bowl on medium speed until soft peaks form.  Gradually add 1/3 cup sugar, beating on high speed.  Beat until stiff but not dry.  Use a rubber spatula to fold one-quarter of the egg whites into the batter, then fold in remaining whites.  Divide the batter among the pans and spread evenly.

Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25-35 minutes.  Cool and remove from the pan.  Spread the cake when cool with your choice of icing.


Vanilla Bean Buttercream Icing

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

4 cups sifted powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 - 2 Tbsp whole milk

1 vanilla bean

In a standing mixer fitted with a whisk, mix together sugar and butter. Mix on low speed until well blended and then increase speed to medium and beat for another 3 minutes.

Add vanilla, vanilla bean and cream and continue to beat on medium speed for 1 minute more, adding more cream if needed for spreading consistency.

Pies for your hands!

If y'all don't know by now, I'm here to tell you: I LOVE STRAWBERRIES. And I have some kind of physical compulsion to buy them when they're so beautiful and fresh in the store. So I get home and have a couple containers of strawberries and say, 'Now what?'

This time, the 'what' was hand pies. I'm in constant search of an awesome pie crust and I think my search may be over. I found the strawberry hand pie recipe from Good Things Catered but their dough recipe called for buttermilk which I did not have. So I found one from Epicurious and holy cow. It came out damn near perfect. Flaky and buttery! I don't even care about the filling as long as the crust is good!! To be honest, it's my favorite part of pie. Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream and it would've been perfect! I can't wait to make it in a whole sized pie and see if it comes out as good.

The recipe from Good Things Catered calls for 3 cups of strawberries and that was a little too much for the pie dough that I had. I cut that by a cup but kept the sugar content because my strawberries were actually a tad tart. I wish I would've tasted before I baked; I would have added more sugar. So TASTE YOUR BERRIES and then judge how much sweetness needs to be added. Mine needed a bit more.

But overall, this was a smashing success, mostly because I CONQUERED PIE CRUST. And they're so darn cute! Lookit the widdle hand pies!

PASTRY DOUGH
Adapted from: Epicurious (Original recipe for full pies here.)

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1/4 cup cold vegetable shortening (preferably trans-fat-free)

1/2 teaspoon salt

5 to 7 tablespoons ice water

Freeze cubed butter and shortening until frozen; 15-30 minutes. Combine flour and salt in food processor to mix. Add butter and shortening and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal with some small (roughly pea-size) butter lumps. Drizzle 5-7 tablespoons of ice water over mixture while lightly pulsing until just incorporated. Do not overwork dough, or pastry will be tough. (Personal note: I usually process until it forms a ball and this time, I decided not to. I used 6 tablespoons of water and the mixture did not pull together. Instead, it was clumpy but when I pressed with my fingers, it held. There were dots of butter visible in dough.)

Turn dough out onto a powdered sugar-dusted work surface and form together. Cut pie dough in half and form into two disks. Wrap both portions in plastic wrap and freeze. Pastry dough can be chilled up to 2 days ahead.

STRAWBERRY HAND PIES

2 cups fresh strawberries, hulled and quartered (or cubed; make small pieces)

2 Tbsp granulated sugar

2 tsp fresh lemon juice

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

Turbinado sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment.

In medium bowl, combine strawberries, granulated sugar and lemon juice and set aside.

Let frozen pie dough disk defrost, 30 minutes to an hour. Dough should be very cold and hard to roll out. Roll onto a powered sugar-dusted work surface to about 1/8 in thickness, moving and turning over constantly to avoid sticking. Using round pastry cutter (or trace knife around small plate), cut out about 5-6 inch rounds.

Place round onto baking sheet and place about 2-3 Tbsp strawberry mixture into center.

Using pastry brush dipped in a small amount of egg, brush the edge of half of the round. Fold dry edge onto egg brushed half, forming semicircle shape, and press edges together to seal with the tines of a fork.

Brush the top of the pie with egg mixture and sprinkle with sugar. Use a small knife to make a 1 inch slit in the top of the pie for steam to escape. Repeat with remaining pastry dough.

Place in oven and bake until tops are beginning to turn golden brown, about 20 minutes. Let cool on sheets for 7-10 minutes and then transfer to wire rack to cool completely. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Summer Strawberry Season!

YOU GUISE. Seriously, you guys. SRSLY. I LOVE strawberries. Like, I would marry them if I could. They're perfection. And it's STRAWBERRY SEASON OMG.

Now, my mom made one of the best cakes I've ever had for my birthday and do you know what I did? I left my camera at home. And it was GORGEOUS. She made this Almond Chiffon Cake with mixed berries beautifully piled on top (it looked just like that pic) and it was DELISH. I'm really disappointed that I forgot my camera but it was a crazy-awesome birthday and I got caught up.


To continue on the OMG FRESH BERRIES kick, I picked up some strawberries this weekend and got right to using them! The first is this strawberry tart which, okay, tarts? They are TIME CONSUMING. You prepare the ingredients by laying some out to come to room temp (or freezing butter for the dough), then you assemble the dough and put that back in the freezer once it's in the pan. Make the pastry cream (which I'm getting better at with practice) then throw that in the fridge for a couple more hours. You bake the tart crust and set that out to cool. Once that's cool and then the cream is properly chilled, you can finally prep the strawberries and assemble everything! It took most of Saturday.

But it was TOTALLY worth it. I love fruit tarts. It was a hit with the family too! Success all around! I should make more tarts...


STRAWBERRY TART


SWEET TART DOUGH
Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home To Yours

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick plus 1 tablespoon (9 tablespoons; 4 1/2 ounces) very cold (or frozen) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg yolk

1. Put the flour, sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times to combine. Scatter the pieces of butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is coarsely cut in—you should have pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and some the size of peas. Stir the yolk, just to break it up, and add it a little at a time, pulsing after each addition. When the egg is in, process in long pulses—about 10 seconds each—until the dough, which will look granular soon after the egg is added, forms clumps and curds. If dough does not come together, add 1-2 Tbsp of cold water, 1 Tbsp at a time, until you can pinch dough together.

Turn the dough out onto a work surface and, very lightly and sparingly, knead the dough just to incorporate any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing.


2. To roll or press the dough into the pan: Butter a 9-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom.

If you want to roll the dough, chill it for about 2 hours before rolling (unless you've used frozen butter and the dough comes out of the processor firm and cold, in which case you can roll it immediately). I find it easiest to roll this dough out between two sheets of plastic film – make sure to peel away the film frequently, so it doesn't get rolled into the dough.

If you want to use the press-in method, you can work with the dough as soon as it's processed. Just press the dough evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Don't be too heavy-handed – press the crust in so that the edges of the pieces cling to one another, but don't press so hard that the crust loses its crumbly texture.


PASTRY CREAM
Tartine

2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup + 1 tbsp sugar
2 large eggs
4 tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp vanilla extract

Pour the milk into a heavy saucepan. Add the salt, place over medium-high heat, and bring to just under a boil, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, whisk together the cornstarch and sugar. Add the eggs and whisk until smooth (don't let the eggs and sugar stand together for too long or else the sugar will cook the eggs *so I've heard*).

When the milk is ready, slowly drizzle about 1/3 of the hot milk into the egg mixture, whisking continuously. Pour the egg-milk mixture back into the hot milk and continue whisking until the custard is as thick as lightly whipped cream, about 2 minutes. The mixture must come just to the boiling point (slow bubbles, not boiling vigorously, or you will curdle the eggs, yuk). Remove from heat and immediately pour through a sieve into a bowl. Stir in the vanilla extract. Let cool for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cut the butter into 1 tbsp pieces and whisk into pastry cream 1 tbsp at a time until smooth.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, pressing directly onto the top of the cream to prevent a skin from forming and put in the refrigerator to cool for 3 hours or up to 2 days.



Assemble tart inside pan to prevent crust breaking. Cover with desired fruit! (For a glossy coat, microwave about 1/4 cup apricot (or raspberry or strawberry) jam for 30 seconds or until liquid enough to brush over fruit.)

Flaky Cookies and Tea

Sometimes the easiest dishes taste the best. There's something pure and perfect about simple flavors. My mother made these cookies MAYBE twice, about ten years ago, and I still remembered them. There's almost nothing to them but they're flaky, sometimes chewy (with cooked jelly) and they're altogether lovely.

And I've got a serious soft spot for strawberry sweets and tea. Of course, you can use whatever jelly or jam you like best! Go crazy!

A word of advice: these won't rise at all. I recommend making them the thickness you'd like in a buttery cookie (1/2-inch is ideal to me) and make deep wells for the jelly. It likes to escape its cookie when it can!

And one more warning? They're super addictive. Good luck having just one...

CREAM CHEESE / JELLY COOKIES

3 ounces cream cheese (may use 1/3 less fat)
1 stick (4 oz) unsalted butter, softened (*if using salted, omit salt)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 pinch salt
jam, jelly, or preserves, your favorite


Cream the cream cheese and butter together. Blend in flour and salt.

Roll out on a floured surface and cut into lines dividing lines 2 x 1 inch long. Press a trowel in center with end of spoon or finger/thumb. Place a dab of preserves or jam in the center of each cookie.

Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet at 375 degrees for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Tarts, tarts and more tarts

There's little that's more disappointing than failure. Especially when you pour time and effort into something that results in a complete waste of both. This is what happened with my first attempt at mini tarts.

My first mistake, probably, was believing I could splice a couple recipes together without having adequate knowledge of the procedure in the first place. Without specific instructions on how thick to roll the dough, I did it TOO thick. The mini crusts weren't weighed down with beans or pie weights and they came out thick, pale and barely cooked. The custard was a disaster: cooked too long and turning into a glob of rubbery goo. If ever there was a time to describe a baking attempt as a TOTAL failure, this was it.

And yet, as a perfectionist, I can't leave something done wrong. It has to be right. So, in classic cliché form (yes, I DID say to myself, "If at first you don't succeed..."), I tossed the failure in the garbage and started again with a new recipe and some determination. I'd learned a few things so maybe screwing up is necessary every now and then. I made the crust thinner, weighed it down (as the hasn't-failed-me-yet Ina instructed), baked it until I felt it was done. I was WAY more cautious with the custard, took it off the heat the moment it came together enough for me and added the last bit of butter and vanilla while still in the pan. It was so good, I was licking the spoon. And the bowl. ...and the pan a little after it cooled.


In the end, I guess my comically bad first attempt was a good learning experience because it made this success all the more satisfying. It felt much more like an accomplishment than it otherwise would have.

Oh and they taste really good. :)


MINI BERRY TARTS
Adapted from Ina Garten

Tart Shells:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) cold unsalted butter, diced
2 tablespoons cold shortening (recommended: Crisco)
1/4 cup ice water


Pastry Cream:
5 extra-large egg yolks, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/2 cups scalded milk
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon heavy cream

1–2 cups mixed berries (strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries)
1/3 cup apricot jelly


Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a small bowl and place in the freezer for 30 minutes. Put the flour mixture in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Add the butter and shortening and pulse about 10 times, or until the butter is in the size of peas. Add the ice water and process until the dough comes together. Dump on a well-floured board and form into a disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Roll out the dough to roughly 1/4-inch thick and use round cutters (or small bowls) to cut shapes to fit into 5 (3-inch) tart pans (or your preferred size mini tins). Don't stretch the dough when placing it in the pans or it will shrink during baking. Cut off the excess by rolling the pin across the top of each pan. Line the tart shells with a piece of buttered aluminum foil, butter side down, and fill them with dried beans or rice. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove the beans and foil, prick the bottom of the shells all over with a fork, and bake for another 15 to 20 minutes until lightly browned. Set aside to cool.


In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the egg yolks and sugar on medium-high speed for 4 minutes, or until very thick. Reduce to low speed, and add the cornstarch.

With the mixer still on low, slowly pour the hot milk into the egg mixture. Pour the mixture into a medium saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the mixture thickens, 5 to 7 minutes. Don't be alarmed when the custard comes to a boil and appears to curdle; switch to a whisk and beat vigorously. Cook, whisking constantly, for another 2 minutes; the custard will come together and become very thick, like pudding. Stir in the vanilla, Cognac, butter, and heavy cream. Pour the custard through a sieve into a bowl. Place plastic wrap directly on the custard and refrigerate until cold.

Before serving, fill the tart shells with the pastry cream. Arrange the berries decoratively on top of the cream. Melt the apricot jelly with 1 teaspoon of water and brush the top of the tarts.

Birthday de Moi!

I have an obsession with strawberries, it would seem, since they make me unreasonably happy. I'm sure it stems from childhood stuff (see user pic of Strawberry Shortcake birthday) but I don't care. I asked my mom for a strawberry cake for my birthday last week and this beautiful creation is what she produced. I didn't make it myself so I could exclude it from my food blog but I can't keep the pretty away. PINK!


STRAWBERRY CAKE

• 1 package white cake mix
• 1 package (3 ounces) strawberry-flavored gelatin powder
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/4 cup water
• 3/4 cup mashed strawberries or sweetened frozen strawberries

Combine cake mix and gelatin powder in a large bowl. Beat in oil, eggs, water, and strawberries. Pour into 2 9-inch round greased and floured cake pans. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool completely before icing.


STRAWBERRY FROSTING

• 1/4 cup butter
• dash of salt
• 1/4 cup shortening
• 1 pound confectioners' sugar
• 1/4 cup mashed strawberries or remaining sweetened frozen strawberries (drain juice)

Beat the butter/shortening and confectioners' sugar together until smooth and fluffy. Add strawberries. Spread between cake layers, then frost top and sides.

Strawberry Cupcakes... of DOOM

When I was younger, my mom made a strawberry cake. And it was the greatest cake I'd ever had. Fast forward ten or so years and I asked for it again and got it for my sixteenth birthday. The fond memories wrapped up with the insatiable love of strawberries made it the best cake I'd ever had. Again. Going in with these kinds of high expectations was really just setting myself up for disappointment. I realize this now. But in the end, it is what it is. Also, I hate that phrase.

The last two cupcake flavors, vanilla and chocolate, were a cake walk (heh. cake) compared to finding a good strawberry cake recipe from scratch. I found a few promising ones on AllRecipes.com but every one seemed to have Jello in it and when made, somehow weighed the cake down without making it dense. It was almost sticky-thick but not heavy. The first (the Strawberry Cake from Scratch from AllRecipes) was a disaster: not sweet enough, not strawberry-y enough. I'll take responsibility for it, though; I took some suggestions from the reviews and commenters and I will be more cautious about that in the future. The second, I started to fiddle with by myself. Instead of just pureed strawberries, I made The Cake Bible's Strawberry Puree/Sauce which concentrates the juices, adds sugar, makes it stronger. It still had Jello in it so that consistency thing was still an issue but it came out not bad. But it was only the second try so I soldiered on.

Next I tried to substitute strawberry puree for bananas in a Banana Cake recipe. What came out of my oven was a purple crime against nature. Let us never speak of it again. But it did teach me one lesson: strawberry puree alone barely flavored cake at all and there was a reason this Jello stuff was in all these recipes. In a last ditch effort, I attempted strawberry jam (with a Jam Cake by Emeril Legassi). It was nothing like what I was looking for; it had brown sugar, cinnamon and it had the darker color and taste that accompanies these flavors. It tasted okay, just not what I wanted.

So in the end, the one I modified and made more strawberry-y came out on top. The recipe called for a cream cheese (with butter) icing which just came out ho-hum and tasting a little like yogurt so I made a simple whipped cream topping for them. The cake is sweet enough and has a strong enough strawberry punch that the light cream works with it, just as real whipped cream does with fresh strawberries. I'd like to try a vanilla buttercream just to see how those two strong flavors go together but for now, this would be fantastic as a layered cake with whipped cream and sliced strawberries in the middle and whole ones for decoration on top.


STRAWBERRY CUPCAKES

2 cups Self rising Flour
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 3/4 cup sugar
1 pkg strawberry jello (3 oz)
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 1/4 cup of Strawberry Puree

Prepare Strawberry Puree (*recipe follows)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two standard 12-cup muffin pans with paper liners; set aside.

2. Sift flour into a bowl and set aside. In another bowl beat eggs then add oil, sugar, gelatin, and buttermilk. Stir until well blended. Add flour to the mixture and blend. Fold in puree.

3. Pour in pans and bake for 17 to 20 min, or till lightly browned. Let cool on wire racks completely.



* STRAWBERRY PUREE AND SAUCE

5 cups strawberries, fresh (or 20 oz bag of frozen, unsweetened)
2 tsp lemon juice, freshly squeezed
1/4 cup sugar (optional)


Freeze fresh strawberries. In a colander suspected over a deep bowl, thaw the strawberries completely. This will take several hours. Press them, if necessary, to force out the juice. There should be close to 1 1/4 cups of juice.

In a small saucepan (or a microwave* on high power) boil the juice until reduced to 1/4 cup. Pour it into a lightly oiled heatproof glass measure.

In a food processor puree the strawberries. You should have 1 full liquid cup of puree. Stir in the strawberry syrup and lemon juice. Add sugar (if needed; depends on sweetness of berries). The correct amount of sugar is 1/5 the volume of the puree (for 10 tablespoons puree, add 2 tablespoons sugar). Stir until the sugar dissolves.


*If using a microwave, place the juice in a 4-cup heatproof glass measure or bowl to allow for bubbling.



WHIPPED CREAM

1/2 cup heavy cream, well chilled
1 tbsp confectioners' sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1. Place a mixing bowl and beaters from electric mixer in the freezer or refrigerator until well chilled, about 15 minutes.

2. Combine the heavy cream, confectioners' sugar, and vanilla extract in the mixing bowl.

3. With an electric mixer on low speed, begin beating the cream, gradually increasing the speed to high as cream thickens. (Do this slowly, or the cream will splatter.)

4. Beat until the cream forms soft peaks. Test to see if it is ready by turning off the mixer and lifting the beaters out of the cream - if the cream makes soft peaks that topple over slightly, then it's done.

Serve immediately or cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 2 hours.

I've made my peace with strawberry and now I can move on to the next flavor. Lemon!!

Tea and biscuits. Pretty much.

I lived in London for a few years and while a lot (okay, MOST) of the food was nothing to write home about (I am from Texas, after all), there were a few eating habits and preferences that stuck. The most notable is the craving for a nice, warm cup of tea on a rainy day and now that it's August in Alaska, it's clouding over more often than not. Today was one such lovely, rainy day.


A PROPER tea sit down for me, though, must include biscuits. Yeah. I said biscuits. (My British Shorthair cat is named Biscuit for this very reason.) My favorite biscuit (OKAY, cookie) with tea was a vanilla creme sandwich with strawberry jam in the center made by the grocery chain, Waitrose. I haven't found anything that's even close to it in the States. I knew I wouldn't be able to pull THAT off today so I settled for a butter biscuit then threw in a little strawberry jam on top just for that strawberry/cookie texture and taste with the tea. The cookies were not terribly sweet but I suspect that was my fault: it calls for 1 cup superfine sugar (processed in food processor) and I measured a cup THEN processed it and I believe (after tasting them), it meant a full cup of the processed sugar. It's a rookie mistake, I know. I'm working on it.

BUT, lucky me, I had the jam there for the straight sweetness so it went together fine. I adapted two different recipes - one for the plain rolled butter cookies from The Best Recipe and another for the thumbprint variation from The Dessert Bible.

They're so petite and cute, I can't stop eating them. GET IN MY BELLY.


THUMBPRINT JAM AND BUTTER COOKIES

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup superfine sugar, or granulated sugar processed in food processor for 30 seconds
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg plus 1 yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1. Either by hand or with electric mixer, cream butter, sugar, and salt until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes with mixer set at medium speed. Add yolk, beat well, then add whole egg and vanilla; continue beating until well incorporated. Add flour; beat at low speed until flour is just mixed in. Shape the dough into a round, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to 3 days.

2. Adjust oven racks to upper- and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 375 degrees. Remove disk of dough from refrigerator and shape rounded teaspoons of dough into balls using your palms and place onto parchment-lined baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Make an indention in the middle of the dough with your thumb and fill with 1/4 teaspoon jam. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, reversing cookie sheets (from top to bottom and back to front) halfway through baking time, until evenly light brown.

3. Immediately transfer cookies to cooling rack. Cool to room temperature and allow to set, 1 hour.


Serve with a piping hot cup of PG Tips and you're all set!

(My favorite fancy tea cup. Go ahead; do your Mrs. Doubtfire voice. "Oh HEL-LOOOO! A spot of tea in the garden, love!? YEEEAAASSS!!)