Almond Tea Cakes with Wild Blueberry Jam

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Beautiful little Almond Tea Cakes with Wild Blueberry Jam are some of the best cookies we’ve ever made.

I couldn’t be more proud of this new delicious recipe! Developing recipes in my head is always a lot easier than making those dream recipes come true in my kitchen. However this newly created recipe exceeds all my expectations by a mile! Like a cross between Mary Berry’s Viennese Whirls, a Russian Tea Cake Cookie and a buttery jam filled shortbread thumbprint, this hybrid is truly one of the best cookie recipes to ever come out of the SRFD kitchen!

I adore these tender little buttery gems with loads of flavor from the almond extract and almond flour.

The combination of almond and blueberry is classic and so delicious. These tea cakes are an instant favorite and I’ve already thought of a dozen variations I can’t want to try. The texture is wonderful with a little nuttiness from the almond flour. I always keep a bag of almond flour on hand and store leftovers in the freezer.  It keeps for up to a year when sealed in a ziploc container in the freezer. If you don’t have almond flour, grind blanched almonds into almond meal instead.

This simple cookie dough is a breeze to make right in your food processor.

There’s no need to refrigerate the dough before rolling into balls, or before baking. Rolling the dough takes a little time, but the results are worth the effort. Baking in small confectionary mini muffin baking cups prevents the dough from spreading which is a common challenge when making thumbprint cookies. These bake up beautifully and are easily removed from the paper wrapper. No sticking, I promise!

Our best tips for making perfect Almond Tea Cakes with Wild Blueberry Jam:

• If you don’t have a mini muffin baking tin, you can bake the cookies in the paper cups placed directly on a cookie sheet. The cookies will spread just a little more and be wider on the top. However, this is not a problem and they still look very pretty and bake perfectly. 
• While rolling the dough into balls, it may feel like the dough is breaking apart and crumbling. If so, use a little less pressure and roll again, applying more pressure as the ball becomes firm.
• If the dough ball splits or cracks when creating the pocket for the jam, re-roll the ball applying light pressure at first, then more pressure as the ball becomes firm.
• The cookies are crumbly when they first come out of the oven but firm up as they cool. While they’re delicious eaten warm, they hold together better when cooled.
• Use a small cookie scoop for the perfect size dough ball to fill the mini baking cups.

Change it up and use your favorite jam for this recipe.

I don’t recommend using jelly in these cookies due to the higher amounts of sugar when compared to most jams. Jelly may burn or get so hot it sinks to the bottom of the cookie. Our favorite jam is made by Stonewall Kitchen. You can find their quality products in grocery stores, on their website or on Amazon. We use their Wild Maine Blueberry Jam for this recipe but strawberry would be great here, as well as peach. Or, use all three for a variety of flavors and pretty color variations. It’s all good!

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Almond Tea Cakes with Wild Blueberry Jam

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

15 mins

Total Time

25 mins

 

Course: Dessert

Servings: 48 cookies

Author: Tricia

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup almond flour (almond meal) or ground blanched almonds
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/3 to 1/2 cup wild blueberry jam, room temperature, stirred
• powdered sugar for dusting
• 48 mini muffin paper baking cups

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 24 mini muffin tin with baking cups. Alternatively, line a baking sheet with the mini muffins cups spaced 2-inches apart.

2. In the bowl of a food processor, pulse the flour, almond meal, sugar, baking powder and salt until blended. Add the butter, vanilla and almond extract. Pulse until the mixture becomes a soft dough.

3. Using a small cookie scoop (flat - not heaping) roll balls of cookie dough into tight balls. With the cookie dough ball cupped in one hand, make an indentation with the pinky finger from the opposite hand into the center of the ball. Make the well half the depth of the dough ball, then place it in the baking cup, with the hole facing up. If the dough ball starts to crack or split, re-roll until it’s smooth, tight and pliable. Continue until the mini-muffin tin is full. Fill each cookie with a heaping 1/4 teaspoon of blueberry jam. The jam should completely fill the indentation and be somewhat overfilled.

4. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until lightly browned on the edges. Do not over bake! Allow the cookies to rest in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool. Once cooled, dust with powdered sugar. Store at room temperature in an airtight container. Cookies will keep for up to 5 days.

Recipe Notes

• If baking the cookies on a cookie sheet instead of in a mini-muffin tin, the cookies will spread just a little more, be wider on the top. This is not a problem and they still look very pretty and bake perfectly.
• While rolling the dough into balls it may feel like it’s breaking apart and crumbling. Use a little less pressure and roll again, applying more pressure has the ball becomes firm.
• If the dough ball splits or cracks when creating the pocket for the jam, re-roll the ball applying light pressure at first, then more as the ball becomes firm.
• The cookies will be crumbly when they first come out of the oven but firm up as they cool. While they’re delicious eaten warm, they hold together better when cooled.
• Substitute your favorite flavor of jam if desired.

Here are a few more of our favorite jam filled cookies you might like:

Not just for the holidays! These pretty Raspberry Almond Shortbread Thumbprints are so delicious you’ll want to make them for every gift-giving opportunity, party, holiday, event, potluck and family extravaganza. Click HERE to get the recipe for Raspberry Almond Shortbread Thumbprint Cookies.

Mary Berry’s Viennese Whirls – enjoy these delicious, tender melt-in-your-mouth butter cookies slathered with raspberry jam and a light vanilla buttercream filling. Click HERE to get the recipe for Viennese Whirls.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Tricia