Shortbread Jam Cookies with a Streusel Topping

Shortbread jam-filled cookies with a streusel topping....  French vanilla sablé dough topped with jam and ringed with a buttery cinnamon vanilla streusel. 

My favorite type of cookie is anything shortbread or sablé. Some of my favorites include pecan butterscotch shortbreads, hazelnut shortbreads, cornmeal sablés, and lemon vanilla shortbreads. 

I love the sandy, crumbly, and buttery texture of these cookies. 

All you need is some butter, flour, sugar, vanilla, thick jam, and cinnamon, all ingredients you probably have in your pantry and refrigerator. 

While assembling these shortbread jam cookies with streusel seems kind of fussy, it's actually pretty easy. 

The cool thing about these cookies is that they come out all the same size because they are baked in either a muffin tin or a mini cheesecake pan. The perfect cookie for the slightly obsessive. 

Of course, there is the jam and streusel placement issue. I haven't quite figured out how to get uniformity with these ingredients. 

I made these cookies in a mini cheesecake pan. It has 2-inch cavities and straight sides, plus, there are removable bottoms so you can easily lift the cookies out of the pan. I also baked the other half of these cookies in the other mini-cheesecake pan I happen to own. 

Yes, I'm slightly obsessive. 

Fortunately, you can also make these cookies in a standard muffin pan, so don't despair if you are not a kitchen equipment hoarder like I am. 

I made 24 of these cookies with the original recipe and then froze the rest of the dough to make vanilla sablés a few days later. This dough will yield about 36 cookies total. 

To make the streusel:

The streusel is simple to make. You just have to have some patience. 

First, you will need to cut really cold butter into little cubes. Next, you mix them into a flour, sugar, cinnamon, and salt mixer with a stand mixer for about 10 minutes, until you notice that the mixer begins to slow down a bit. 

It will seem like it's taking longer than it should. The dough is ready when you squeeze it together and it holds together. 

You can also make this streusel by hand by squeezing and rubbing everything together until you have clumps. 

Once you have the clumpy streusel, add the vanilla. 

Drop the jam in the center of the cookie dough and then sprinkle the streusel arount the sides. 

To drop the streusel around the sides, I used a demi tasse spoon. I first tried using my fingers, but the spoon helped keep the streusel off the jam in the center. 

I used blackberry jam for the centers of these cookies, but you can use any thick jam or preserves you like, such as raspberry, strawberry, or apricot. 

This month, the Baking Bloggers are baking with jams and preserves. We have a wonderful selection of baked dishes, both savory and sweet, that include jam and preserves. I can't wait to try them all. 

Baking Bloggers January 2021

Using Jams & Preserves in Baking

• Culinary Adventures with Camilla is sharing Roasted Lamb with Bourbon-Plum Glaze
• Making Miracles is sharing Chicken Thighs in Raspberry Sauce
• Sid's Sea Palm Cooking is sharing Jelly Glazed Wings
• Cookaholic Wife is sharing Blackberry Crumble Bars
• Magical Ingredients is sharing Jam Pinwheel Cookies
• Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice is sharing Orange Marmalade Cinnamon Streusel Muffins
• Palatable Pastime is sharing Jalapeno Lime Glazed Chicken
• Food Lust People Love is sharing Sticky Jammy Hot Wings
• Sneha's Recipe is sharing Chicken Legs With Strawberry Balsamic Glaze & Spicy Potato Wedges
• A Day in the Life on the Farm is sharing Pepper Jelly Glazed Chicken Breasts

This recipe was adapted from one of my favorite (actually my very favorite) cookie book, Dorie's Cookies by Dorie Greenspan. In the book, she calls these "jammers." In fact, she has lots of jammers in the book. 

I have a huge collection of Dorie's cookbooks, including Baking: From My Home to Yours, Around My Friend Table, Baking Chez Moi, Happiness is Baking, and Everyday Dorie. Whenever Dorie comes out with a new cookbook, I buy it. 

One of my favorite parts of this book is her story about how she and her son ran a cookie boutique, Beurre & Sel, in New York City, for five years. 

Part of that story was how she came up with the technique for making these sablés uniform. She ended up using 2-inch baking rings. I'd love to collect some baking rings myself, but the lack of space is holding me back.... just barely. 

You definitely can use a muffin pan. 

P.S. to roll the dough out evenly, I used a adjustable rolling pin with little measuring disks. It was so easy! 

Shortbread Jam Cookies with a Streusel Topping

Yield: 36 cookies

Author: Karen Kerr

Shortbread jam-filled cookies with a streusel topping.... French vanilla sablé dough topped with jam and ringed with a buttery cinnamon vanilla streusel.

Ingredients

For the Shortbread Cookies

• 2 sticks (226 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup (30 grams) powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 large egg yolks, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups (272 grams) all purpose flour

For the Streusel

• 3/4 cup (102 grams) all purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 5 1/2 tablespoons (78 grams) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4 inch cubes
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the Cookies

• About 1/2 cup thick jam or preserves

Instructions

To Make the Cookie Dough

1. Beat the butter, sugars, and salt on medium for about 3 minutes, until smooth. 
2. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the yolks, one at a time. Add the vanilla. 
3. With the mixer turned off, add the flour all at once. Pulse the mixer until the flour is slightly incorporated and the risk of flour flying all over your kitchen is gone. Then, mix on low until the flour is just incorporated. 
4. Scrape the dough out onto your work surface and divide it in half. Form the dough into disks and then roll them with a rolling pin until they are 1/4 inch thick. 
5. Wrap the dough with plastic wrap and freeze for one hour or refrigerated for at least 2 hours. 
6. Make ahead: The dough can be kept in the freezer for up to 2 months. 

To Make the Streusel

1. Add all of the ingredients to the bowl of a stand mixer and mix with the paddle attachment on medium-low speed for about 10 minutes, until the mixture is crumby and forms clumps when you squeeze it with your hand. 
2. Sprinkle the vanilla over the mixture and pulse a couple of times. 
3. Place the mixture into a container and refrigerate for an hour before using.
4. Make ahead: You can make this up to 2 weeks in advance and store it in the refrigerator. You can also freeze it for up to two months. 

To Make the Cookies

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a regular muffin pan or mini cheesecake pan (that has 2 inch wide cavities) with spray oil. 
2. With a 2-inch round cookie cutter, cut the dough into rounds and drop them into the cavities of the pan. Gather up the scraps, re-roll them, and place them into the refrigerator to chill. 
3. Spoon 1/2 teaspoon of jam in the center of the dough. Spoon the streusel around the edges of the cookies to surround the jam but not over the jam. 
4. Bake the cookies for about 20 minutes, until the edges are slightly brown. 
5. Let the cookies cool in the pan for about 15 minutes before gently moving them to a wire rack. 
6. Repeat with the rest of the dough, jam, and streusel. You will have leftover streusel, which you can save for muffins or more cookies. 

https://www.karenskitchenstories.com/2021/01/shortbread-jam-cookies-with-streusel.html

Karen's Kitchen Stories

cookies, dorie, jammers

Dessert

American

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Thank you Dorie for your fabulous cookbooks.