Recipe: Jam Jams

These are the best of cookies, these are the worst of cookies...

Jam Jam!

Generally speaking, I like to cook healthy food. It makes me feel good and is delicious. Some times, however, I like to eat things that are horrible for me. These cookies are that.

White flour gets processed by your body the same as refined white sugar and that is one of the worst things for you. These cookies are mostly white flour, sugar and butter. You cannot "healthify" these cookies by using alternative ingredients because they will not be the same at all. So here is to indulgence...

The recipe is a slight alteration of the "yo-yo cookies" from the Mennonite Treasury of Recipes. This cookbook is hilarious. It has instructions like "Add some flour" (not listed in ingredients) and "Bake until done." I'll be more specific...

Ingredients:
3/4 cup butter
1 3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
2 Tbls warm water
2 cups flour
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
Jam*

Directions:
Cream the butter and sugar together. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs well. Dissolve the baking soda in the warm water. Mix well and add to beaten egg. Mix again and pour into butter/sugar. Mix very well. Blend in flour with salt and vanilla. Drop about 1 tablespoon full of dough onto lined baking tray, leaving 1 1/2 to 2 inches between. Bake at 375°F for 8-10 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from baking tray with spatula and allow to cool. Spoon 1-2 tsp of jam* onto a cookie and sandwich together with a second cookie. Let these sit at room temperature for a day or at least overnight. Now you can eat them. :)

*I recommend raspberry jam. I've tried lots of different ones and I find that tart or tangy jams work best. Raspberry is easy to find, cheap and classic. If you want something fancier you could try chokecherry jelly, cranberry or something with rhubarb. 

Eggs

To 'cream' the butter and sugar, you need to have the butter soft but not melting.

I used both light and dark brown sugar this time.

Creamed butter and sugar.

Vanilla volcano!

Mixing is hard work.

The final dough is very thick.

They melt as they bake. Probably all the butter.

Coooooookies!

Raspberry jam. Be liberal.

Make a sandwich.

Make lots of sandwiches!

Notes:
These cookies are not actually that nice when they first come out of the oven. Do not worry! It's the jam soaking into the cookie that creates bliss. 

Keep an eye on these while they are baking. They can burn very easy. 

If you are using more than one rack in the oven to bake them on, rotate the top to bottom tray when taking one out and putting another in. This will keep them baking evenly. Also, make sure the racks are fairly high. I used the middle and just-above-middle of my five choices. If I could only pick one, I'd choose the upper one.

I like these frozen best. Once they've had a chance to absorb some of the jam, double freezer-bag them and put them in the freezer. Eat from frozen. Awesome chewy bliss!

I accidentally made 5x instead of 3x the recipe. Thankfully they freeze well!