A punchy ending to a fun weekend at our mountain cabin. Our friends left after breakfast and, well, a tin of cookies was left sitting out on the porch.
I actually think the cookies look better on my husband, Wayne.
And I guarantee they’ll look even better on you. So in a minute, I’ll share the recipe.
After breakfast.
The cabin, built on the side of the mountain in the 1880’s sits on 65 acres that are so steep you have to pull yourself up by tree roots. No lights, no indoor plumbing, and no modern appliances = breakfast cooked on the cookstove.
Served on the porch. My wood-fire grilled giant marconi peppers stuffed with local sausage pencil cobb cheese grits, and our friend Jen’s crusty bread.
And now that we’ve eaten breakfast, let’s play with our cornmeal cookies …
Corn showed up in just about all baked Appalachian heritage foods as wheat was scarce and corn was grown in patches straight up these mountains.
These fragrant cookies are crunchy, not too sweet and perfect with a cup of afternoon tea. I highly recommend that you make your own fabulous blackberry jam next summer to fill the cookies! Raspberry also goes well with these.
Appalachian Log Cabin Cornmeal Lemon Blackberry Jam Thumbprint Cookies
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup coarse yellow cornmeal
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
Grated zest of one lemon
Cream butter and sugar; add egg, vanilla, lemon zest. Combine dry ingredients and then add to butter mixture and blend well. Form into two skinny logs, wrap and refrigerate or freeze until firm. To bake, slice about 1/2 inch thick and place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. When softened a bit, make a dent in each cookie with your finger or a wooden spoon handle, and fill with a LITTLE dab of blackberry jam. (Your baked cookies will be prettier if you put your jam in a baggie, cut the tip off, then pipe jam into cookie hole.) Bake at 350ยบ for 10 minutes until edges are lightly browned.
WORKS EXCELLENT !!!!!! Thanks