This week's Tuesdays With Dorie selection is Thumbprints For Us Big Guys, and these delicate shortbread cookies are all grown up with the addition of ground hazelnuts (or another nut) and jam. As I have been making up for lost time tasting (or more accurately devouring) all of the TWD treats that I tucked away in the freezer during my 3 week detox, I was definitely feeling a little overloaded with the sweets. I cut this recipe in half, and made the cookies bigger than Dorie directed and yielded 16 "big guy" sized cookies. I set aside a couple of cookies and the rest will head to my hub's work.
While I was rummaging through the freezer to find these brownies and these chocolate chip cookies, I stumbled upon a bag of hazelnuts so had to use them in this recipe (mental note: clean out the freezer!). Instead of raspberry jam, I used bosenberry jam.
These cookies were buttery, delicate and tender and was a perfect afternoon snack with a cup of tea. If you'd like the recipe, make sure to visit Mike's blog, Ugly Food Dude.
Linzer Sables are a perfect seasonal choice for this week's 
I followed the recipe as written, with hazelnuts as my ground nut choice. I would definitely recommend freezing the rolled sheets of cookie dough before cutting, as the dough is really sticky and tough to work with otherwise. To get a nice golden brown color, I reduced the baking time to 9 minutes; at the recommended 11-13 minutes, the cookies were a bit well done.
I sandwiched the cookies with dollops of raspberry and blackberry jams. Dorie Greenspan's suggestion for a chocolate filling sounded divine (hazelnuts & chocolate --- how can you go wrong!), and I'll definitely keep that in mind for the next time.
This was the perfect recipe to kick off the holiday baking season. This was just a warm up --- I have quite the variety of cookies to make this month, and I definitely be sharing them with you in future posts. 