Christmas is near, and I’ve been a busy bee getting gifts together and wrapped and preparing for our upcoming travels to visit family.

One tradition I love is baking Christmas cookies. Growing up, I helped my mom bake cookies every year — and we always wrangled my dad into helping, too. My dad is a superb cookie decorator.

This year I’m only making one kind of Christmas cookie because it’s just Christopher and me. And I know we’ll be sent back to Indianapolis with plates of cookies from our family.

The one cookie I’m making is my all-time favorite: thumbprint cookies!  I use my great grandma’s recipe, and let me tell you — these are way better than your average thumbprint cookie. I think it’s partly because they’re so simple. But also because of the almond extract. The almond and raspberry flavors  mix so well.

Ingredients

½ cup butter
½ cup sugar

1 egg
1 t. almond extract

1 ½ cup flour
½ t. baking powder

Directions

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.
Add the egg and almond extract and mix.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder. Combine well with the above.
Refrigerate the dough. I let mine refrigerate overnight.

When you’re ready to bake them, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Roll the dough into 1-inch balls. Space out on a cookie sheet.
Flatten each ball. We always use the bottom of a glass cup.
Use your thumb to add the thumbprint.Fill the thumbprint with raspberry jelly*. I like the kind with seeds best for this recipe.

Bake the cookies for 10 minutes.

This recipe yields 20 cookies. We always double the recipe because A) you never get 20 cookies after eating 3 cookies worth of dough and B) they’re GOOD.

*My great grandma made this recipe with green mint jelly. I’ve never tried it — if you’ve ever used mint jelly let me know what it’s like.

This afternoon Christopher are taking off to visit our parents. I hope your Christmas preparations are going well!