Picture Perfect Cooking

I love trying new desserts!  I have a few go-to recipes that I will make over and over again, but if I find something interesting I am going to try it.  I found this recipe last March on Leslie Land’s blog, http://leslieland.com/blog/fast-cookies/.  Ms. Land is a garden writer for newspapers and magazines.  She calls these Split Second Cookies aka Lightening Cookies because it only takes a short time to make them.

I made mine with homemade (by my mom and grandmother) peach and blackberry preserves, but you can use any flavor you like.  The cookies by themselves would make wonderful butter cookies, but the fruit filling really adds to them.  Here is a little word of warning:  I made my cookies too thin and they would break when you tried to eat them.  Only roll them out about 1 inch thick, no less.

2 scant cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

pinch salt

2/3 cup sugar

3/4 cup very soft butter

1 beaten egg

2 tsp vanilla

1/3-1/2 cup fruit preserves

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Put dry ingredients in a shallow mixing bowl and stir to combine. Using a wooden spoon, work in the butter, egg and vanilla just until you have a cohesive dough.

Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 4 parts. Shape each into a log about 13 inches long and a scant inch thick.

Place logs well apart on a ungreased baking sheet.  I used a Silpat baking mat.  Use the handle of a wooden spoon to press a deep trough down the center of each log.

Fill the troughs with preserves, mounding them slightly.  Bake until light gold, 15-18 minutes.  Remove logs from pan and slice while warm.  The cookies will firm up as they cool.

There are a couple of other versions that Ms. Land has on her website that I haven’t had time to try yet, but they look delicious as well!