white chocolate strawberry jam cookies

a couple weekends ago, we spent a saturday at my parents' for three reasons: my mom's double nickel birthday, father's day, and to make as many four ounce jars of strawberry jam as we could. an hour and a half into it, we made four batches of jam, jarred close to thirty jars, and were starting our clean up when mom stopped mid-sentence "now really, why does anybody ever buy jam? it's so easy to make. it takes no time, it just dirties a lot of pots." i think she's on to something.

if you've never made your own jam before, it's easy. unbelievably easy and pretty dang hard to mess it up. last year, i went directly to the source - my almost eighty year old grandfather, who has been making jam longer than i've been alive - and learned a few tips to make jamming even easier.

so rather than make another jam, i wanted my jam in a cookie, but not a thumbprint. sure, thumbprints are great, but to me they're almost, ever so slightly mundane. and they're a christmas cookie in my book.

thumbprints are out. lucky for me that left me with these white chocolate raspberry jam cookies i bookmarked in my google reader last summer. swapping out the raspberry jam for strawberry was easy, the hard part was how to marble the jam into the cookie.

the first sheet, i spooned the jam over the cookie and marbled it with a paring knife. they came out ok, but i wondered if there was a better way.

the second sheet, i mixed it up. i added the jam and then poked holes in the dough with a toothpick (left). i spooned jam on top of the dough and did nothing else (middle). and i swirled jam with a toothpick (right). honestly - and as you can tell by the pictures - it doesn't really matter what method you use. mine all came out pretty much the same.

and while these aren't very attractive cookies, they're delicious with homemade jam.

white chocolate strawberry jam cookies
adapted from hot polka dot
1 hour, makes 18 cookies

1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup strawberry jam

1. preheat your oven to 350F and place a rack in the center. line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. 
2. in a large bowl, cream the butter and sugars together. add the egg and vanilla and mix until incorporated. 
3. in a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together.
4. slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture until incorporated. mix in the white chocolate.
5. spoon dough in heaping tablespoons on the cookie sheet. use the flat bottom of a glass to lightly flatten the cookies. 
6. spoon about 1 teaspoon of jam onto each cookie. spread the jam around so it evenly covers the top of the cookie.
7. bake about ten minutes, or until the tops are lightly browned. cool completely on a wire rack and store in a sealed container. these cookies are best within a day or two of when they're made.