Blackberry Cookies

Today is the last day of Ramadan, which means that tomorrow is 3id Sagir. The holiday is generally celebrated by going to the homes of family and friends and eating specially made sweets at each stop. There's so much preparation that goes into it, the coop girls haven't been to work since Tuesday. So this afternoon I thought I'd get into the holiday spirit and make some cookies myself, so that we'd have some to share tomorrow.

I guess you can say these cookies have been in the making since we went to visit another volunteer a few weeks ago for a workshop. Her site is covered in blackberries and we'd go out early every morning and pick as many ripe berries as we could find. No one was ambitious about picking the berries as Lisa, Jon, and I.



We picked so many berries we made enough jam to fill over 20 jars of various sizes. Though we've given some of it away, we still have a lot left (plus, we're going back to said blackberry site this weekend for more picking!).





That's why I chose the recipe, "jelly-filled cookies" from the Peace Corps Morocco Cookbook. Here's the recipe as it appears in the cook book so that you can try it yourself:

Jelly-Filled Cookies
2 c flour
1/4 t salt
3/4 c sugar
1 egg, beaten
1/4 c water
1 t baking powder
1/3 c butter or margarine
1 pkg vanilla sugar (I used 1 t of vanilla extract)
2 T orange juice
about 1 cup jam

Preheat oven to high heat. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in lg mixing bowl. In sm bowl, cream butter, vanilla and sugar. Add eggs. Pour butter mixture into flour mixture; stir in juice and water. Roll out dough to 1/8" to 1/4" thickness. Cut cookies with glass to make circles. Spoon 1/2 t jelly onto center; pinch 3 sides together to form triangle. Bake on greased baking sheet 10-12 min or until lightly browned.

That's the recipe, however, I found that by following it to the letter the dough was way too sticky to roll out. I let it sit for over an hour in the fridge, which helped but not enough, so I added more flour little by little until it was a nice sugar cookie-like consistency.

As you can see we had some spillage from the jam, but all-in-all they are great cookies! Light, soft, and chewy! Just before sundown we gave our neighbor a half dozen and she was very excited about trying them.

Give them a try with your own home-made jam this blackberry season (or grape or raspberry, etc) and tell me how they turn out!