Let the baking begin!

I told the kids we were going to have a baking spree this week. This is a special treat because I don't enjoy baking. I find it messy and time consuming, and when there are little helpers around, it's messier and more time consuming. But the holidays are coming, so I figured it was time to spend a little time in the kitchen getting messy. We started with Russian tea cookies, and will do another kind tomorrow

Isaac putting in ingredients

Genna rolling the dough into balls

Bella making thumbprints for the jam

Elijah filling up the cookies with preserves
The finished product! Google is refusing to load this picture properly, so you get to see it on it's side

We used raspberry preserves for our cookies, and these really taste great warm. (I'm normally not a warm cookie person, but these are yummy) I liked the limited ingredient list, and we were able to make them pretty quickly. I doubled the recipe below, and got about 5 dozen cookies. (most are going in the freezer)





Mrs. Fields Russian Tea Cookies:

1 cup Butter
2 cups Flour
½ cup Confectioners' sugar
¼ teaspoon Salt
2 teaspoons Vanilla extract
½ cup Fruit preserves OR chopped nuts
¼ cup Confectioners' sugar

Preheat oven to 325d F. In a large bowl cream butter and sugar using an electric mixer. Add vanilla, scraping down bowl as needed. Blend in flour and salt, mixing until thoroughly combined. Roll tablespoonfuls of dough into small balls about 1 inch in diameter. Place dough balls on lightly greased cookie sheets about 1 inch apart. Press down the center of each ball with a spoon (I found using a thumb easier) , forming a depression. Fill each with a teaspoonful of preserves or nuts. Bake 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer cookies immediately to a cool, flat surface. When cookies are completely cool, dust them lightly with confectioners' sugar.