Apricot Cream Cheese Cookies - Revised

These cookies are excellent, with just enough tartness from the lemon zest and juice plus the apricot jam to compliment the sweetness of the confectioner sugar on top.

Besides apricot preserves, I also love red raspberry jam or preserves for thumbprint cookies. I have an eggless cream cheese cookie you might like to try if you have egg allergies in your household. You can find the recipe here at Raspberry Cream Cheese Thumbprint Cookies.

Ingredient For Cookies

• Unsalted butter
• Granulated sugar
• Egg
• Cream Cheese 
• Lemon juice
• Lemon zest
• All-purpose flour
• Baking powder
• Apricot preserves
• Confectioner sugar Enough to sprinkle on top

Prepping and Mixing

Lemon juice or zest just brightens up the taste of almost any cookie. For this cookie, we are using both juice and zest. Zest one lemon and only go over the same spot once or twice. If you go deeper into the underlying layer of white, you will give a bitter taste to your cookies. Then cut the lemon in half and juice.

Weigh or measure the sugar and add it to the mixer bowl along with the butter and the cream cheese. Mix on medium speed for a good 3 minutes.

Next, add the lemon zest, lemon juice, egg, and blend. Weigh or measure the flour into a bowl. Add the baking powder, and whisk together. I scrape down the sides and across the bottom.

Gradually add the flour mixture to the mixer bowl and mix till all the flour is incorporated. Cover and put into the refrigerator for an hour.

Create Thump Print Cookies

You can use a teaspoon or a small cookie scooper to have enough cookie dough to make a ball. A good size is about 1-½ to 2 inches in circumference, and place them on a parchment-lined cookie sheet pan.

Take your thumb and go straight down from the top of the ball. Only go about ¾ of the way down; you don't want to hit bottom, or the apricot preserves will leak out.

Next, take a teaspoon and fill the wells with the apricot preserves.

Bake

Bake at 350°F (175°C or 180°C) for 11-13 minutes. I check them by touching the cookie, and it should be slightly firm. The bottoms should be golden brown.

Move them to a cooling rack to cool. When the cookies have completely cooled, you can sprinkle confectioners sugar on the tops of the cookies.

The great thing about these cookies is that you can add whatever jam or preserves you have on hand. I have done these cookies with blackberry and strawberry preserves which I also love. But you can't beat the taste of apricot preserves.