Sometimes despite your best intentions to eat  or gift your way through all the jams, jellies, marmalades, fruit butters, preserves, and curds you’ve made in the past year, you still end up with a few remaining jars on hand come December. This is great news, if you plan to give some away as gifts, but a bit more challenging when you’ve given everyone on your list, and then some, a 1/2-pint of strawberry preserves or blackberry jam.

Enter the thumbprint cookie. These vessels will gladly take your extra preserves. For a modest effort of effort, you get a delicious means of using your goods up while your friends and family get a delectable treat. Everyone wins. Of course, there’s no mandate to have to give them away at all. In the business of the holiday rush, it’s important to stop and smell the cookies (and jam) oneself.

Oh, and that lovely little cookie tin up there? Glenn picked it up from a thrift store, and then decoupaged the lid with scrapbooking papers. Great way to create artistic, attractive cookie tins without spending a mint!

The Goods:
-1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
-2/3 cup sugar
-2 egg yolks, plus one lightly beaten egg white
-Zest of 1 lemon
-2 cups all-purpose flour
-3/4 teaspoon salt
-1 cup toasted almonds, finely ground*
-1/4-1/2 cup fruit jam (I used Blackberry Sage Jam that I made this past summer using the recipe from Food In Jars)
*To toast the almonds, bake in a 225ºF oven for 7-8 minutes, until fragrant. Allow to cool fully and then grind in a food processor until finely ground.