Almond-Jam Thumbprint Cookies

These little gems are moist and not too sweet, with just the right amount of crunchiness. They will impress anyone from grown-ups at a dinner party to kids at snack time. I find that a food processor does the best job of pulsing the almonds into a fine flour. Use your favorite jam or jelly; it’s also fun to use more than one type of jam in a single batch, to mix up both the flavors and the colors. Makes about 36 cookies

2½ cups raw whole almonds

1½ cups oat flour

1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour or barley flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon fine sea salt

1 cup pure maple syrup

¼ cup apple juice

¼ cup neutral cooking oil

2 teaspoons almond extract

About ¾ cup raspberry preserves, apricot preserves, or apple butter

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line 2 heavy baking sheets with parchment paper.

Pulse the almonds in a food processor until they form a fine flour with some small speckles of nuts still visible. You’ll want to leave some small bits of the almonds to lend a nice crunchy texture to the cookies.

Stir the ground almonds, oat flour, pastry flour, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl to blend. Whisk the maple syrup, apple juice, oil, and almond extract in a medium

bowl to blend. Stir the wet ingredients into the flour mixture until blended.

Using a 1-ounce ice cream scoop (about 2 tablespoons), scoop the dough in mounds onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. (If you don’t have an ice cream scoop, just roll 2 tablespoons of dough into a ball for each cookie.) Using the end of a wooden spoon, make an indentation about ½ inch in diameter that goes to the bottom of the cookie, but not through the bottom. Spoon the preserves into a pastry bag or a small resealable plastic bag. If you’re using a plastic bag, use scissors to cut 1 bottom corner off the bag. Pipe the preserves into each indentation, mounding them just above the top of the cookie. The jam will melt down as the cookies bake, so be sure to mound it up a bit when filling the indentations.

Bake the cookies until they puff and become pale golden on the top and bottom, about 25 minutes. Transfer the baking sheets to cooling racks and let cool.

The cookies will keep for 2 days, stored in an airtight container at room temperature.

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