Valentine's day has never been a thing at our house. Mostly we just try to remember not to go out to dinner, because there's nothing worse than fighting through a massive crowd of people on dates for some mediocre pasta and a fourteen dollar cocktail. This year the holiday falls on a Friday, which will make the situation that much worse. Dinner at home--which is almost 100% likely to be something casual like burritos--is a much better plan.

But that doesn't mean you have to eschew celebrating if you don't want to. For example, you can have some cookies after you have your burritos. Hooray! Cookies!

I decided to give jam-filled cookies a try, both because I had somehow never made them before (I know, right?) and because a jar of raspberry jam was plaintively calling my name from the refrigerator. And what goes better with raspberries than oats? Cream, maybe, but that's a project for actual non-jam summer raspberries. So I broke out some rolled oats, mixed them up with whole wheat flour, and started baking. The results were excellent: tender and delicious, with a crisp cinnamon-sugar coating and a sweet center.

This dough is fairly sticky, so be sure to wet your hands as needed while shaping your cookies. Err on the side of wide rather than deep jam indentations, as the dough will spread in the oven but the jam will not. This will also help you avoid the foul specter of jam leaking out the bottom of your cookie.

Also, I am evidently incapable of ever typing the word "thumbprint" correctly on the first try. Go me!


Raspberry oat thumbprint cookies

1/2 cup softened butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup rolled oats
cinnamon sugar to roll
raspberry jam to fill

Start by preheating your oven to 350F and lining your baking sheets with parchment or silicon mats.

Cream together your butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Add your egg and vanilla and beat until well combined.

In a separate bowl, mix together your flour, soda, salt, and cinnamon. Add to the wet mixture in batches, beating together with a wooden spoon. Stir in the rolled oats.

With wet hands, roll your dough into small balls. Roll each ball in cinnamon sugar (or don't, if you prefer--these are good either way) and put them on your prepared baking sheet. Make an indentation in each cookie with your thumb. Fill with jam.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until set and just brown around the edges. My cookies were perfect at 12 minutes exactly. Give them a minute or two to stabilize before removing them to a rack to cool.

This makes about 2 dozen delightful cookies that you can merrily scarf down while drinking a big mug of tea.

What are you baking this week?