CHRISTMAS COOKIE COUNTDOWN:

Mrs. Claus' Christmas Eve Kisses!

Preheat the oven to 180˚C, 160˚C Fan, 350˚F, Gas 4

With a wooden spoon, cream butter with light brown sugar until smooth. Add in the egg yolk and vanilla, mixing to combine. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt and then add to butter mixture, combining until the dough holds together. You can of course use hand beaters but just remember that you don't need to incorporate a lot of air in the mixture. Shape into 3cm balls.

Lightly whip the egg white to froth very lightly and loosen. Place the coarsley ground nuts into a separate bowl.

Dip the cookie dough balls into the frothed egg white; you can use a fork to lift out, tapping against the bowl to remove any excess egg white as you only need a very light coating. Immediately place into the bowl of nuts and toss gently until the balls are completely coated.  Space apart on parchment-lined baking sheet and press your thumb into the middle of each to make a deep dent.

After baking for 10 minutes, remove from the oven and press your thumb once again into all of your initial imprints which will have raised a bit by now. Return the cookies to the oven for another 5-10 minutes to finish baking. The cookies should take on a lovely golden hue along the bottom edges as well as on top. As soon as the cookies come out of the oven, fill the thumbprints with jam.

*You can definitely play around by substituting the ground coarsely  ground walnuts with pecans or almonds (ideally, skin on). Note that filling the cookies with jam when they're still very warm helps the jam set and form a lovely little seal within the cookie thumbprints!