Tags

It is cold. Very cold. I woke up this morning with a migraine, having mistaken for reality an extremely vivid dream of getting up and taking some ibuprofen at 6:30am.  As a cure for a headache-y and cold day I am going to make the best buttery jammy cookies I know: Frances’ jam cookies. Frances was my great-grandmother’s housekeeper until my great-grandmother moved in with my grandparents when she was 90; Frances was almost as old. Even then they stayed friends, and I remember being around a few times when they had lunch. The main things I remember about Frances though are these cookies, and the box of mixed citrus that we always ordered a  from her church’s annual fundraiser. I’ve always thought of these cookies as very decadent because they’re not plain-old drop cookies–each one is rolled into a ball in your palm. They’re totally worth it though.

2 sticks butter
2 eggs, separated
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans (or more)
jam (apricot is the classic, but I’m using raspberry)

These instructions are directly from the family cookbook, which makes me think they’re probably how she wrote them down:

Cream sugar and butter with a spoon. Add egg yolks, vanilla, and flour. Blend well. Make small balls, dip in egg whites, then chopped pecans. Put on a greased cookies sheet. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 3-5 minutes. Remove from oven and press thumb in center of each cookie. Bake 20 minutes more. Take out of oven and fill depression with jam while cookies are still hot.