True Blood Inspired Cookies

The final season of True Blood is upon us, and to be frank I’m not that excited about it.  The story has been on a steady decline over the past few seasons and it’s time for the show to be put out of its misery.  But that doesn’t mean that it isn’t a perfect excuse to bake!  So I present you with vampire bitten cookies.

 

Vampire Cookies

3/4 cups butter, softened

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon almond extract

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

red preserves or jam (strawberry or raspberry), approx. 1/2 cup

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in the egg and extracts.  Mix flour and salt in separate bowl and slowly mix them into larger bowl with butter sugar mixture at low speed until just incorporated.  Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Preheat over to 325F.

Divide dough in half and keep the portion you’re not using in the refrigerator.  Roll dough out on a floured surface until it is 1/8-inch thick.  Use a cookie cutter to cut out 2-inch rounds.  Place rounds on a baking sheet, put a teaspoon of jam or preserves on each round and cover with another dough round.  Press down around edges, pinching the edges to the cookie sheet.  Use a toothpick and poke two small holes in top of each cookie- like vampire fang marks.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until cookies are set.  Cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before moving to wire rack to cool completely.  Dip toothpick into jam or preserves and re-insert into “bite” holes, drizzling more jam away from hole to make a “blood trickle.”

Enjoy!

A couple of helpful tips, make sure dough is cold and use plenty of flour.  The dough warms quickly, becoming sticky and difficult to work with.  Also, this cookie dough is not very sweet as it’s meant to balance the sweetness of the jam filling.  One of my taste testers compared this cookie to a pop-tart.  So, if that doesn’t sound appealing, then swap out this cookie dough for a sweeter roll out cookie recipe.

Do you watch True Blood?  Were you excited about its return?