U.P. Cookies

Remember back around Christmas time I made some special cookies? The were shaped like the lower peninsula of Michigan and were filled with plum jam? I promised I’d share a recipe for upper peninsula cookies, and that they wouldn’t be filled with venison! These U.P. cookies are filled with a mixture of lingonberry and blueberry jam! As Brent and I walked, wide-eyed, down the ‘International Food’ aisle at Meijer the ruby red lingonberry jam from Sweden looked quite delicious. Since we’d never had it before, we bought a little jar and upon our arrival home I devoured my first spoonful. Lingonberries taste similar to cranberries, which means I was an instant fan of this new jam! I kept saying to Brent, “Why have I never eaten this before?!” The combination of the tart lingonberries and sweet blueberries really adds a unique flavor to these cookies.

U.P. Sugar Cookies (Rolled and Filled Sugar Cookies)
1/2 cup white or brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup blueberry jam
1/4 lingonberry jam (bought a jar at Meijer)
sugar (for dusting)

With an electric mixer, beat sugar and butter until fluffy. Add in vanilla and eggs, blend well. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to wet ingredients and combine well. Form dough into a ball or log shape, wrap in plastic wrap or seal in an air tight container. Chill dough for 3 to 4 hours in the fridge (or an hour and a half in the freezer) before forming into cookies. Mix blueberry jam and lingonberry jam together in a small dish. Once the dough is chilled, preheat the oven to 375 degrees, and then roll the dough out until it is 1/4 to 1/8 inch thickness. Using an upper peninsula shaped cookie cutter cut shapes out of dough. Line cookies up on a tray, spoon 1 teaspoon of the jam mixture onto the top of the cookies. Using a smaller cookie cutter (I chose a star shape) cut a shape out of several of the Michigan cookies, and then place these on top of the jam covered cookies. Press lightly around the edges to seal the dough over the jam. Sprinkle white sugar over the top of each cookie. Depending on the size of your cookies, they will take 7 to 10 minutes to bake. Cool cookies on a wire rack. This dough recipe was from Joy of Cooking, but the filling was just a mixture of jam I had in the pantry.

Tagged as: baking, cookies, recipe