Bread newsletter no.11

Sourdough thumbprint cookies

Dear bread friends,

It’s so nice to be sitting down, writing to you about bread (well, actually cookies) again.

I’ve been wondering, how has your 2023 been so far? For me, random things just keep going wrong. It almost feels like it can’t be real. I keep thinking of that phrase: ‘stranger than fiction’ – that has really been my life this year. Usually you can kind of anticipate the things that might go wrong, but this year I’ve felt completely blindsided. A very small example: I broke my foot just getting into the car, a split second where I don’t even know what went wrong.

Is it like this for you too? I feel like lots of people around me are having a similarly stressful year. I really hope your year has been going smoothly and it’s just me.

Benny always helps me bake.

The cookies that I’m sharing with you today are easy to put together, delicious and very aesthetically pleasing.

It’s a recipe I created in the making of Such Good Bread, my upcoming book (it’s getting close!). It will probably surprise no one who reads things I write to hear that my manuscript was a bit too long. It is one of a few recipes that I didn’t get to put in the book that I am dying to share with you! You can watch the video version of this recipe here.

I’ve thought a lot this year about how life has seasons – someone kindly shared with me the book ‘Wintering’ by Katherine May. It talks about how certain seasons of life (winter) we need to hibernate, retreat, find quietness in order to preserve energy and get through. I found that idea really resonated with my experience over the past months. I am crossing my fingers that soon it will be spring.

If you’re in a personal winter right now, I feel for you. I hope you can find some time and space to bake or to do other little things that bring you joy. If someone you know is in winter, maybe you can give them some of the time and space that you have in the form of baking for them, maybe these cookies or a loaf of bread. What I love so much about baked goods is that when gifted, they’re such a symbol of your time and thoughtfulness going out to the person who receives them.

Talk soon :)

Sincerely,

Mary Grace

PS my dad (who as many of you know, has been very sick in the last months) says thank you to everyone who has been sending their good energy, prayers, kind thoughts and words. You’ve been helping us both.

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Sourdough thumbprint cookies

Jam tart cookies with that thick, sweet, baked strawberry jam made frequent appearances throughout my childhood, but they haven’t come up very often in my adult life. I am here to bring them back, with a sourdough twist.

I love the way the jam becomes thicker, a little caramelised and I love how that very particular consistency and flavour immediately takes me back to being a little kid, bored, stuck sitting at a table with my mum while she talks to her friend, pulling apart one of those biscuits, always eating the jam first and then the actual biscuit.

This is a great way to use up any spare starter you might have saved in the back of your fridge and there is something so satisfying about making the little thumb shaped holes and filling them up with jam.

Makes 10 cookies

Ingredients

50g sourdough starter or discard
130g butter (room temperature, cubed)
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 pinch of salt
1 tsp baking powder
130g white sugar
20g brown sugar
190g all purpose flour
80g strawberry jam (approx.)

Method
Making the dough

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine sourdough starter or discard, butter, egg yolk, vanilla extract, salt, baking powder, white and brown sugar. Mix using an electric beater until smooth. Then add the all purpose flour and mix using a wooden spoon / dough whisk. The dough will initially seem very dry and flaky. Eventually switch to combining the dough with your hands. Keep going and it will eventually come together into a cohesive buttery mass.
   

2. Once the dough is smooth and no dry flour is visible, take a dinner plate and divide the dough into 10 balls approx. 55g each.
   

3. Then place the plate into the fridge and leave for at least 1 hour, ideally for 2 hours and up to 24 hours. If longer than 2 hours, cover the balls with cling wrap so they don’t dry out.

Baking the cookies

4. When you’re ready to bake, preheat your oven to 190C / 375F.
   

5. When your oven has preheated, remove the dough from the fridge. Take one dough ball into the palm of your hand and use your thumb to press and squish it, leaving it somewhat flattened with an indent in the middle. If the edges crack, squish them back together.
   

6. Use about 2/3 of a teaspoon of strawberry jam to fill up the indent in each cookie. Place on a baking tray. Repeat for each dough ball.  
   

7. Bake for 10 minutes. Then rotate the tray and continue baking for a further 4-6 minutes, or until your cookies are lightly golden on the edges.
   

8. As soon as your cookies come out of the oven, if you have one available you can use a crumpet ring or a round cookie cutter to ‘scoot’ the cookies. Spin them around inside the ring so that they become a nice, neat round shape. If you don’t have a crumpet ring or cookie cutter, don’t worry, your cookies will just look a little more rustic. Let the cookies sit on the tray for 10-15 minutes.
   

9. Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack and allow to cool further (you can eat one now if you like!).

Step by step, the thumbprint cookie process :)