Two Birds With One Stone

Baking these cookies helped with two of the items from my to-do list. First, I am working my way through Sarah Foster's Southern Cooking, and this recipe came from there. Second, I wanted to cook with lingonberries. I bought a jar of lingonberry jam to make Swedish meatballs with, but never made the meatballs. I have been looking for a use for the jam, not wanting it to go to waste. These Cornmeal Thumbprint Cookies fit the bill. I did half of the batch with lingonberry jam, and the other half with raspberry-peach champagne jam from the frou-frou food store. The cookies have a pleasant crunch from the cornmeal, though my little food processor didn't grind the almonds up as much as they should have been so they were extra crunchy. I used to be a big fan of the Knott's Berry Farm jam cookies I bought at the vending machine at work a long time ago, though these are much better. I had to remind the family that although they are small (1-inch balls), they aren't calorie free. :)

Oh, and as far as the lingonberries - I knew that they were more tart, like cranberries. These cookies aren't overly sweet, so I don't think I'd use lingonberries with them again. They'd work better with a sweeter base to work from. I actually liked the effect, but my husband wasn't as crazy about them.