1986 Winner Almond Thumbprint Cookies

Title: 1986 Winner Almond Thumbprint Cookies
Yield: 60 Servings
Categories: Cookies, Holiday 

Ingredients: 

----------------------------------COOKIES----------------------------------
      2 c  Sifted all-purpose flour
    1/2 c  Sugar
    1/4 ts Salt
      1 c  Butter
    3/4 c  Grated unblanched almonds
      2 ts Vanilla


----------------------------------FROSTING----------------------------------
      6 tb Butter
    1/3 c  Half-and-half
    2/3 c  Packed brown sugar
      2 c  Confectioners' sugar
    1/2 ts Vanilla
           Chopped pistachio nuts
           For garnish
 
  Preparation time: 45 minutes Baking time: 16 minutes
  
    1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. For cookies, sift flour, sugar and salt into
  bowl. Cut in 1 cup butter with pastry blender until mixture resembles
  coarse crumbs. Blend in almonds and vanilla. Work mixture with fingers
  until a ball of dough is formed. Then shape into 1-inch balls.
  
    2. Place balls on greased cookie sheets; make a depression in center of
  each cookie. Bake about 8 minutes; remove from oven. Dent again and bake
  about 8 minutes longer; cool.
  
    3. For frosting, blend 6 tablespoons butter, half-and-half and brown
  sugar in saucepan. Boil 2 minutes, stirring constantly; remove from heat.
  Cool about 15 minutes, then stir in confectioners' sugar and vanilla. Beat
  until smooth and thick.
  
    4. Fill depressions in cookies with butterscotch frosting and sprinkle
  frosting with nuts.
  
    Winner Penney L. Haney of Kenosha described these cookies:   "Oh, the
  aroma! Dad knew his 'girls' had been baking as soon as he stepped in the
  back door, brushing snowflakes from his coat. He warmed his hands over the
  hot oven, slowly recovering feeling in his fingertips, numb from stringing
  red, yellow, blue, green and white lights in the pines in the yard. His
  chore and our special treat combined each year to mark the beginning of our
  holiday preparations.
  
    "While chatting to Mom about trying to locate the single, burned-out bulb
  that had kept an entire strand out, he watched me, his tiny daughter, with
  not so dexterous fingers, shaping dough into big marbles. I had to kneel on
  a wooden chair to reach the table, with Mom's brightly-colored apron
  wrapped around me nearly twice, held together in back by a giant safety
  pin." from the Chicago Tribune annual Food Guide Holiday Cookie Contest
  December 4, 1986
  Posted to MM-Recipes Digest V3 #340
  
  From: Linda Place 
  
  Date: Thu, 12 Dec 1996 11:32:57 +0000