These are not only beautiful cookies, but delicious and easy. Everyone will think you spent hours baking them!

I’ve been making these cookies since 2014. I originally got the recipe from Allrecipes.com, but I’ve since made a few changes to make the results more consistent year after year. One of those is to chill the dough before rolling it out and baking it. This keeps your cookies from spreading all over the place!

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 5 large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam
• For the glaze:
• 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 teaspoon milk

What you’ll need

• Measuring cups and spoons
• Stand mixer or medium mixing bowl and beaters
• Plastic wrap
• Rolling pin
• Cookie sheets
• Hole-making utensil or thumbs
• Whisk
• Fork

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• In a medium bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Mix in 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract. Slowly blend in the flour until dough comes together into a ball. Wrap the ball in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
• Roll dough into 1-inch balls.
• Place on ungreased cookie sheets. Make a small hole in the center of each ball with your thumbs or the bottom end of a wooden spoon. Fill the hole with preserves but do not overflow.
• Bake 14-18 minutes in preheated oven, or until very lightly browned.* Let cool 1 minute on the cookie sheet.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the glaze ingredients and drizzle lightly in a crisscross pattern over warm cookies using the tines of a fork.

*Do not wait for the cookies to turn brown in the oven!  They are done when the edges of the cookies lose their shininess while baking and the bottoms are lightly brown. 

Like these cookies? Try my other favorites!

• Melt-in-your-mouth Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
• No-Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies