Peanut Butter Jewels

These thumbprint cookies start with a peanut butter cookie mix, so most of the work is already done for you. Roll the dough balls in sugar or chopped peanuts, press a well into the center, and drop in a little strawberry jam. That’s your “jewel."

Half the batch gets a sugary coat, the other half gets a salty peanut crust. Bake them on the same sheet and you’ve got two textures from one dough. The jam bubbles slightly in the oven and sets up as the cookies cool, giving each one a sticky-sweet center against that nutty base.

Press the indentation deep enough that it holds the jam without spilling over. The handle end of a wooden spoon works better than your finger for a clean, even well.

Chef Tips

• Don’t overfill the jam. A quarter teaspoon per cookie is plenty. Too much and it overflows during baking.
• Let cookies cool on the sheet for a full minute before transferring. They’re fragile right out of the oven.
• Chop the peanuts fine so they stick to the dough. Coarse pieces fall off.

Variations

• Grape or apricot: Swap the strawberry jam for grape jelly or apricot preserves for a different color and flavor pairing.
• Chocolate drizzle: After cooling, zigzag melted chocolate across the tops for a dressed-up holiday cookie tray look.