Christmas Cookie Platter

This morning I delivered the first of more than a few Christmas cookie platters that I'll be putting together over the next few weeks.  A couple of friends had asked if I planned to bake again this year, and at first I said no, that I wanted time to relax and enjoy the season.  Then I started thinking about cookies, and recipes, and more cookies, and what I could do and the impulse to make cookie platters took over and here we are!  These are some of my standards, and seem well-loved by my friends.  My personal favorite are the jam thumbprints, made with Alton Brown's sugar cookie recipe, rolled in coconut, and baked with my friend Catherine Golden's jam.  For this batch, I used her pineapple apricot jam (amazing) and some strawberry jam as well.  Rounding out the cookie platter are gingerbread men, brownie bites (with melted chocolate drizzle and crushed candy canes on top), sugar cookie snowflakes, and peanut butter kisses.

Linked here is the recipe for the sugar cookies,   I rolled the dough (not chilled) into1-inch balls which were then rolled in an egg white wash (one egg white beaten with a tablespoon of water) and then into coconut.  I flattened them a bit, made a good dent with my thumb (thus the name) and filled the indentations with about 1/4 tsp. jam each.  I baked them on a parchment-lined cookie sheet at 375 degrees for about 12 minutes or until the coconut was nice and toasty.  You can see by the photo how they look when they're done.

Now I'm uspstairs (my house) with Henry who's testing a gingerbread man - 2 thumbs up!

Hope you enjoy your weekend.  We'll be baking more cookies today!