Kumquat Shortbread Thumbprint Cookies

Posted by on October 24, 2010 in Blog, Cookies, Lakers, Tea Party, Travel & Local Adventures | 10 comments

 

It’s finally that time of the year!!! It’s Lakers season!

A week ago Saturday, I went to a pre-season Lakers game at the invitation of my family friend. I like to call my friend M-kun, my “lil’-brotha-from-anotha-motha.” (Apologies for my lingo, but I couldn’t help it!) His Dad is like a 2nd father to me and his Mom is like a 2nd mother to me. His older sister, Aya-chan, is like the little sis’ I never had and she was one of my bridesmaids. We celebrate all of our family holidays and special events with their family and we often forget that we aren’t blood relatives, but we really might as well be!

M-kun has access to great season tickets (roughly 10 rows back from the floor), and once in a while I am very fortunate to receive a text asking if I’m available to go with him to a Lakers game. I have to admit, that those are my favorite kind of texts. Earlier this year, on New Year’s Day, we went to a nail-biting game where the Lakers beat the Sacramento Kings by 1-point, thanks to a 3-point shot by Kobe with only 4 seconds left in the game. It was a great way to start 2010 and the season ended with yet another Lakers Championship.

I’ve posted this photo before, but it’s still one of my favorites. It’s a reminder of the excellence of this season.

Although Saturday night’s game was  a pre-season game, we were happily surprised to see Kobe play more than just a few minutes in the 1st quarter. (His knee is still on the mend.) Typically in a pre-season game we only see the starters play a few minutes, but we got to see many of our old friends (Kobe, Lamar, Ron, D-Fish, Shannon, and Pau) as well as some “new kids”, as M-kun referred to them.

Overall, I was happy to see that the new Lakers team was looking pretty good. That night, they beat the Denver Nuggets 102 – 95. I believe the bench will have a stronger presence this season. Also, I should mention that my favorite new kid is Devin Ebanks, #3. He is my Trevor Ariza (he was my favorite Laker for a while) replacement. He looks a little bit like him (kind of), and plays a little bit like him.

I’ve noticed that with age, I’ve become more obsessed with the Lakers. M-kun suggested I read The Lakers Nation. In my free time I like to stop by this site, as well as to peruse the official Lakers website. I think it’s safe to say that all of us Lakers fans are looking forward to the opening game of the regular season.

On one of my Lakers game posts from the ’09 – ’10 season, I featured kumquat marmalade with kumquats from Yin Yin and Papa’s (Bebe E’s paternal grandparents) kumquat tree.

I gifted some of the marmalade, and I also used some for our breakfast, but the remainder I used to make shortbread thumbprint cookies. These cookies are exactly the type of cookie I would love to see at my Tea Party. (I’m still working on building my Tea Party category but stay tuned as there is more on the way!) For these shortbread cookies I used a recipe shared with me by a good family friend. She is a fabulous baker who would like to remain anonymous but I hope to snag a few more recipes from her and feature them on Bebe Love Okazu, anonymously of course.

Shortbread Thumprint Cookies

  • 1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine (I use butter)
  • 2/3 cups white sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • Kumquat marmalade (click here for recipe)

1) Combine butter and sugar in mixer, blend until fluffy.  Add vanilla and almond extracts, mix.  Finally, add flour and mix until combined.

2) Chill dough in the fridge for 2 hours.

3) Roll about 1 teaspoon of dough into a ball, place on baking pan and press down with your thumb to create a well. Fill with kumquat cara cara marmalade.

4) Bake at 325 or 350 . Depending on your preference of cookie texture use 325 for a longer time = drier and crispy cookie; 350 shorter time = softer cookie. I baked them at 350 for about 15 minutes and in my oven they turned out firm and a little crumbly but I thought they were very good.

Enjoy!

Judy | bebe mama

 

Kumquat Shortbread Thumbprint Cookies
Author: 
Recipe type: Dessert
 
Ingredients
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine (I use butter)
  • ⅔ cups white sugar
  • ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ¼ teaspoon almond extract
  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • Kumquat marmalade (see Recipes page on blog for marmalade recipe)
Instructions
  1. Combine butter and sugar in mixer, blend until fluffy.  Add vanilla and almond extracts, mix.  Finally, add flour and mix until combined.
  2. Chill dough in the fridge for 2 hours.
  3. Roll about 1 teaspoon of dough into a ball, place on baking pan and press down with your thumb to create a well. Fill with kumquat cara cara marmalade.
  4. Bake at 325 or 350. Depending on your preference of cookie texture use 325 for a longer time = drier and crispy cookie; 350 shorter time = softer cookie. I baked them at 350 for about 15 minutes and in my oven they turned out firm and a little crumbly but I thought they were very good.

10 Comments