when I was a little girl, my Oma and Opa in greater-Stuttgart had this great cherry tree. I used to love hanging out under that tree, playing in the mud in the early summer, and then enjoying the bounty of the tree later in the summers. My sister once pulled me out of that tree (well, she pulled the ladder, not realizing that my legs were still looped over it, while I was sitting on a pretty high branch) and I broke my foot, but that is the only bad memories that I have of cherries from when I was a child. I love love love cherries.
Ingredients
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup hazelnut meal
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, softened
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups flour
1/2 cup coarse sugar, such as turbinado or demerara
1/3 cup cherry jam
4 ounces white chocolate, chopped
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
Directions
In the mixing bowl of your stand mixer, cream together the sugar and butter. Add in salt, extract and ground hazelnuts. Mix in the flour until well combined. Let rest for 1 hour in the refrigerator before continuing. This step is important so don’t skip it.
Preheat oven to 325F. Prepare your cookie sheets with silpat or parchment paper.
Scoop general balls of dough (about 2 tablespoons each) and roll into balls. Roll in coarse sugar before placing on baking sheet. Press a thumb or forefinger into each, creating a depression. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and with the back of a wooden spoon, redefine the depression and fill with 1/2 teaspoon of the cherry jam. Return to oven and bake for an additional 10-12 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Prepare the drizzle. Put the white chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a bowl of boiling water. While you are doing this, lay out the cookies onto wax paper. When the chocolate is melted, remove from heat and continue stirring. Using a spoon, a ziptop bag with a small corner cut off or a squeeze bottle with a very fine tip, drizzle the white chocolate over the cookies. Let harden completely before moving to storage.
