Thumbprints For Us Big Guys - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups finely ground hazelnuts
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
8 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature (2 sticks)
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
powdered sugar
1 cup raspberry jam (or jam or marmalade of your choice)

Preparation

Position oven racks to divide oven into thirds; preheat oven to 350\u00b0; line two baking sheets with parchment.
In a bowl, whisk together the hazelnuts and flour.
Working with a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.
Add in the extracts; beat to blend.
Decrease mixer speed to low and gradually add the nut-flour mixture, mixing only until incorporated into the dough.
Working with a teaspoonful of dough at a time, roll the dough between your palms to form small balls and place the balls 2 inches apart on the baking sheets.
Steadying each cookie with the thumb and finger of one hand, use the pinkie of your other hand (or the end of a wooden spoon) to poke a hole in the center of each cookie; be careful not to go all the way down to the baking sheet.
Bake for 15-18 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point.
The cookies should be only slightly colored-they may even look underdone, which is fine; they should not be overbaked.
When the cookies are baked, remove the baking sheets from the oven and let the cookies rest on the sheets for 2 minutes before transferring them to cooling racks with a wide metal spatula and sifting powdered sugar over them.
Repeat with the remaining dough, remembering to cool the baking sheets before baking the next batch.
Bring the jam to a boil in a small saucepan over low heat (or bring to a boil in a microwave oven); remove from heat.
Fill the indentations of all the cookies with enough hot jam to come level with the tops.
Cool to room temperature.