Cookie Swappin'

This past weekend I channelled my inner 1950's housewife and hosted my annual holiday cookie swap party. There were many delicious treats, including Susan's jam-filled thumbprint cookies. She graciously agreed to share the recipe (and also some thoughts on mid-century cookbooks). Her musings, and recipe, follow.

The recipe is super-easy. Embarrassingly-so. You should give the 1950 Betty Crocker cookbook the real credit. You've got to see this thing. My mother-in-law found it when she was cleaning out my husband's grandmother's house. Ugh! There is a section at the front, explaining basics of cooking.

One part is titled: "If You Are a Good Mathematician You May Safely .. ."
And then underneath, there are two columns explaining how you can REDUCE RECIPES or INCREASE RECIPES. The first line:
"To double a recipe, use exactly twice the amount of each ingredient." Yes, the italics are in the original.

Well, the men behind Betty Crocker circa 1950 may think women are idiots, but they make a mean cookie. Here you go:

Thumbprint Cookies

Cream together 2 sticks of butter, 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 2 egg yolks (reserve the whites in a small bowl), 1 tsp of vanilla, and I like to add 1/2 tsp of almond extract.

Sift (they are adamant that it be sifted!) 2 cups of flour. Mix well.

Roll into balls. (My first batch were too small; they work better when they are about 1.5 inches). Dip the top in egg white, and then in some chopped nuts. (I use pecans.) The recipe says it should be an ungreased cookie sheet, but mine all had some mild sticking, requiring a bit of prodding to remove. So I defer that. . . Place nut-side-up, and bake at 375 for 5 min. Take them out at 5 min, and gently make indentations in each one. Put them back in the oven for 7-8 more min, depending on your oven.

Fill with whatever jam, jelly, or pie filling you have around. I then sprinkle with the powdered sugar for decoration, but that isn't in the original recipe.