Hot Jam Cookies

Double Fudge Brownie Murder

**Hot Jam Cookies** is the twenty-first recipe featured in Double Fudge Brownie Murder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position.

* 2 cups white ***(granulated)*** sugar
* 1 and ½ cups salted butter, softened to room temperature ***(3 sticks, 12 ounces, 3/4 pound)***
* 1/4 cup pepper jelly (***I used Reese Mild Pepper Jelly made with green jalapeno peppers, but if you want more heat, you can use Reese Hot Pepper Jelly made with red jalapeno peppers)***
* 2 large eggs, beaten ***(just whip them up in a glass with a fork)***
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 4 cups flour ***(pack it down in the cup when you measure it)***
* 1/3 cup white ***(granulated)*** sugar for later
* 1/2 cup pepper jelly ***(use whatever kind you used in the cookie dough)***

**Hannah’s 1st Note: I used an electric stand mixer to mix these up. You can also do it by hand in a large bowl with a wooden spoon if you don’t have a mixer.**

**Hannah’s 2nd Note: When Lisa and I make these cookies down at The Cookie Jar, we use mild pepper jelly for half the cookies and seedless hot pepper jelly for the other half. It’s become almost like a test of manhood with the men in Lake Eden. If one of our male customers orders two Hot Jam Cookies, everyone cheers. If he orders one mild and one hot, everyone claps politely. If he orders two mild, everyone just shrugs.**

* Place the white sugar in the mixer bowl.
* Add the softened butter and beat until it’s light and fluffy.
* Melt the jam in the microwave or in a saucepan over low heat. Once it’s the consistency of syrup, take it off the heat (or out of the microwave) and let it cool on the counter for 5 minutes.
* Mix the melted jam in with the butter and sugar. Beat until it’s thoroughly incorporated.
* Add the eggs and beat until everything is well mixed.
* Sprinkle in the baking soda and salt. Mix well.
* Add the flour in half-cup increments, beating after each addition.
* Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl with a rubber spatula and then take the bowl from the mixer. Give it a final stir by hand and stick it in the refrigerator to chill slightly while you prepare your cookie sheets.
* Prepare your cookie sheets by spraying them with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray, or lining them with parchment paper.
* Place the 1/3 cup of white sugar in a shallow bowl for coating the cookie dough balls.
* Take the cookie dough out of the refrigerator and roll it into one-inch diameter balls with your impeccably clean hands.

**Hannah’s 3rd Note: If the cookie dough is too sticky to roll into balls, cover it with plastic wrap and stick it back in the refrigerator for more chilling, but if you do this, don’t forget to turn off your oven. You can preheat it again when the dough has chilled enough to roll.**

* One by one, place the cookie dough balls in the bowl of sugar and roll them around until they’re coated.
* Place the sugar-coated cookie dough balls on your prepared cookie sheet, 12 balls to a standard-size sheet.
* Flatten the dough balls slightly with a greased spatula or your impeccably clean hand.
* Use your thumb to make an indentation in the center of each cookie. Be careful not to poke all the way through the cookie. Then the jelly you’re going to drop in the indentation will leak out from the bottom of the cookie. ***(Lisa and I use a tool for this at The Cookie Jar, but when Lisa bakes these cookies at home, she uses the small end of a wine bottle cork to poke the holes.)***
* Use a small spoon to fill the indentation with the pepper jelly you’ve chosen, but be careful not to overfill.
* Bake the Hot Jam Cookies at 350 degrees F. for 10 to 12 minutes.
* Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheet on a cold stove top burner or a wire rack for 2 minutes. Then use a metal spatula to transfer them to a wire rack to finish cooling. ***(If you used parchment paper, there’s no need to take the cookies off the paper. Just pull the paper onto the wire rack and wait until the cookies are cool to remove them.)***

Yield:  8 to 10 dozen, depending on cookie size.

**Hannah’s 4th Note: If you’d like to make a half-batch of these cookies, simply reduce each ingredient by half EXCEPT for the baking soda. Leave that measurement at 1/2 teaspoon.**