Strawberry Thumbprint Cookies

While its still six months till Christmas, in my book holiday cookies are meant to be enjoyed year round. These Martha Stewart thumb print cookies are incredibly simple to make and can easily be adapted with spices, nuts and chocolate to make other flavour combinations. I chose to make a spice dough and filled each with strawberry jam, but I'm keen to try a chocolate ganache or apricot jam filling next time. The dough makes about 48 cookies and is best enjoyed with a hot drink or glass of milk as they have a shortbread like texture.

3 cups of flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp all spice
1/2 tsp of salt
250g butter
1 cup of sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp vanilla extract

Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and spices in a large bowl. If you want to make a vanilla dough then feel free to exclude the spices. Beat butter and sugar with a mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture, and beat until combined. Roll dough into balls and place on a baking paper lined tray, spacing each 1inch apart. Press a well into the centre of each ball using your finger or the circular handle end of a wooden spoon. Refrigerate the cookies for about 30 minutes. Bake at 180C for 7 minutes. Remove from oven and press  well again with finger or handle end of a spoon. Return to oven and bake for 5 minutes more. Remove from oven and let cookies cool before spooning jam into the middle of each cookie.