Jammin'

Last night I met my friend and former co-worker Lauren at Bonita, a little Mexican restaurant in Fort Greene, a neighborhood that is just a short walk from mine. Dinner was great, not least of all because it was consumed at one of the sidewalk tables on a balmy night over several hours while we did a bunch of catching up.

We started with a chunky, uncomplicated, very avocado-y guacamole along with a mild pico de gallo salsa and warm chips. Then followed a tasty red snapper and black bean dish and pork enchiladas (also tasty). As we laughed about her very, um, entertaining roommate situation and her impending move to the edge of the earth (that would be an outer, outer, unheard-of part of Queens), we devoured a dense but silky flan, eggy and delicious.

(There wasn't enough light for me to get pictures of dinner, but here are some pictures of the dinner I had there a couple of months ago with my friend Deborah.)

We watched a behaviorally challenged dog knock over a bicycle, and sometime close to midnight we declined a stranger's request to take our picture (though I certainly wanted to whip out my camera to take a picture of his "I *heart* Being Black" t-shirt which is just about as cool as my "I hella *heart* Oakland" shirt). Every great song from the 80s blared from inside the hipster-filled restaurant, from "Karma Chameleon" to "Rosanna", with all of those hipsters singing right along in tequila-laden voices. It was DeKalb Avenue jammin' on a Sunday night.

I was really happy to see Lauren, not just because I hadn't seen her in a long time and not just because I knew she would have good stories to tell but because I now had an excuse to bake cookies (technically I don't require an excuse, but sometimes it's nice to think there is an acutal purpose to my compulsive baking). Lauren loves raspberry thumbprint cookies, and I love baking them. Maybe you will too.

Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies
adapted from The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion

Beat until well blended:
1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar

Mix in:
1 large egg at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon almond extract (optional)

Stir in:
1/2 cup finely ground almond flour (or pecan or hazelnut flour-- make your own by grinding lightly roasted nuts in a food processor but be careful it doesn't turn into a nut butter)
2 1/2- 3 cups all-purpose flour (start with 2 1/2 cups and add in a bit more if the batter seems sticky-wet-- you want the consistency not to feel wet but not to feel dry, dense, or crumbly).

Cover dough and leave it in the fridge for about an hour or until firm. When you're ready to start baking, preheat oven to 350F degrees. Remove the dough from the fridge and begin shaping generous teaspoonfuls of dough into balls between the palms of your hands. Set the cookies about 2 inches apart on a parchment- or Silpat-lined cookie sheet. With the pad of your thumb or the backside of a teaspoon, make a deep crater in each cookie that reaches almost to the bottom of the cookie, but do not go through to the cookie sheet. Bake the cookies for 12-14 minutes until they are almost firm but still give slightly to the touch.

While the cookies are still hot and on the sheet, spoon raspberry jam into the center of each cookie, about a half teaspoon of jam per (you'll need approximately 12 ounces and you can certainly use any flavor of jam or preserves that you prefer, but just don't use jelly) . Pop the cookies back into the oven for a minute or two. Remove the cookies from the oven and set out to cool. This recipe will yield about five dozen cookies.

Sprinkle them with powdered sugar or drizzle with melted chocolate or just eat them as they are. They'll last a few days covered in an air-tight container. Unless Lauren gets her hands on them first.