Vegan Thumbprint Cookies

Do you love to cook? Also love to share what you make best? There is a perfect event for all of us in this category - Food Swap! A dear friend of mine, TC, invited me to the first ever food swap she organized. Her idea was simple if you like to cook and cook big batches, then bring it over and share! She also wanted to keep it within circle of friends. Everyone was very enthusiastic and brought variety of things to share. It was very fun event to be part of. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. She then decided to do that as a quarterly event! And it is gaining popularity! Do not forget to checkout what people brought for the events on the Sunnyvale Food Swap FB page.

Now you must be wondering what is the connection between the food swap and the thumbprint cookies! TC herself made citrus marmalade for second swap. It was so awesome that I did not waste even a single minute to enter my name on the swap sheet. Luckily she also liked chutney I had taken for the swap. I had the marmalade with toast for my breakfast. It was the most flavorful Marmalade I have had. I wanted to use that marmalade wisely and first thing came to my mind was thumbprint cookies. TC had shared her recipe with me but somehow I misplaced it and could not find when I needed. Quick search found me this recipe from Whole Foods and I decided to give it a try. And voila it worked like a charm!! I later found TC's recipe as well and it is almost same with few tweaks.

1 cup Almonds
1 cup Rolled Oats
1 cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1/2 cup Canola oil
1/2 cup Agave Syrup
1/4tsp Fine Sea Salt
6-7 tbsp Citrus Marmalade (or any other jam you have)

Preparation -

Preheat oven to 350°F. 

Coarsely grind almonds and oats in food processor. 

Mix together flour, oil, syrup, salt and ground almond-oats mixture to form dough. 

Make walnut-sized balls of the dough, then arrange  cookies 2" apart on baking sheets. 

Press thumb gently down into the center of each cookie to make an indentation. 

Spoon a teaspoon of jam into each indentation.

Bake cookies until golden brown and just firm around the edges, 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer to a rack to let cool completely, then serve immediately or store between layers of waxed paper in an airtight container. 

Tips -  

1. I used lot of marmalade as I made large impressions in the cookies and I needed to finish big bottle that TC had given me. 
2. I am sure any other nuts should be okay in this but I have tried only with almonds.