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"  Thumbprint cookies are a beautiful, jewel-tone addition to a cookie plate, and this year I made three variations: strawberry jam, orange marmalade and chocolate. The kids loved the chocolate, and I preferred the hint of bitterness from the orange marmalade. The dough I like to use contains cream cheese; these can be rolled in chopped nuts before baking for even more variations.   I used a recipe from Allrecipes, and it made a ton of cookies (about 6 dozen), so use your biggest bowl. I started with 3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) room-temperature butter in a big bowl. I added 1 1/2 cups sugar and one 8-ounce block of room-temperature cream cheese. I beat that together until fluffy, then added 2 eggs, one at a time, then 2 tablespoons lemon juice and 1 teaspoon lemon zest. Next I beat in 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder. Then I added 4 1/2 cups flour, about a cup at a time, until my mixer was really tired. I finished mixing with a wooden spoon, then refrigerated for an hour.   I made balls out of about a tablespoon of dough, then placed them on a parchment-lined baking sheet. I put about 16 on a baking sheet, but these don&amp;#039;t spread much so you may be able to fit more. I used my thumb (thumbprints!) to make an indentation in the dough, then filled the indentations with about 1/4 teaspoon jam or marmalade or 3 chocolate chips. Then I baked at 350F for 13 minutes. I slid the cookies, still on the parchment, onto a cooling rack, then loaded up the next sheet of parchment filled with cookies, which I had prepared while the others were baking.  The chocolate chips retain their shape when baked, so to make a filling I used a butter knife to gently smoosh and smooth the chocolate. It wasn&amp;#039;t ideal, but that&amp;#039;s what I had on hand and, like I said, the kids loved these.  Here&amp;#039;s a roundup of more great holiday cookies, including a hazelnut-encrusted thumbprint cookie: 8 Joyful Cookie Recipes "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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