Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies

Preparation:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

You will need a large mixing bowl, a one cup plus a 1/2 cup plus a 1/4 cup measuring cup, your thumb, cookie sheets, and a wire rack to put them on to cool off.

Gather Your Ingredients:

Make sure you have everything before you begin.

• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup shortening
• 1/4 peanut butter
• 1 egg, separated
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 3/4 cup finely chopped peanuts (optional)
• your favorite Jam or Jelly (I use strawberry jam)

Creating Your Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies Masterpiece:

1. Mix brown sugar, shortening, peanut butter, egg yolk and vanilla until well blended
2. Mix in flour and salt until dough holds together
3. Shape dough into 1 inch balls in the palm of your hands.
4. Beat egg white slightly and dip each ball into egg white and then roll them in nuts (omit this step if your not adding nuts)
5. Place about 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet and press your thumb deeply into center of each cookie.
6. Bake until light brown, about 8 or 9 minutes keeping an eye on them so they don't overcook.

Immediately remove them from cookie sheet to cool on wire rack. When they are cooled, fill thumbprints with your favorite jam or jelly.

Keep these cookies in an air tight container in the fridge and they should last about a week. I did notice after a day or so that the jam soaked into the cookie and made them really soft. They still tasted really good but if you want, you can wait to fill them until just before you are going to eat them.