Let me start by saying that baking sweets has never been my strong suit in the kitchen. My girlfriend is a far better baker than I am. So, when we at Slashfood decided to do cookies for Valentine's Day, I went to my better half much like a child to their parents the day before the science fair. What we came up with, were these jam-filled thumbprint cookies, adapted from The All New Joy of Cooking. I say adapted because the version in the book is reduced fat, and we didn't want that. I also upped the amount of lemon zest in the dough, as the jam we used (Smucker's seedless raspberry) was quite sweet. One final adaptation is to toast the slivered almonds in a dry pan before sprinkling them onto the unbaked cookies. I thought of this after-the-fact, when I noticed that the almonds didn't have much crunch or flavor to them. All in all, these cookies are very simple and quite pretty. They're tempting to eat while still hot from the oven, but watch out for the molten jam. You've been warned.Dry ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Wet ingredients:
6 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened (if you want the reduced fat version, sub 3 tablespoons of the butter with corn or canola oil)
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
zest of one lemon, grated
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Other ingredients:
seedless fruit jam or preserves (jelly is too runny) such as raspberry, cherry, plum or apricot
blanched, sliced almonds, lightly toasted in a dry skillet or on a sheet pan

Preheat oven to 375. Position a rack in the center of the oven. Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment.

Whisk dry ingredients together. Beat wet ingredients on medium speed until well blended.

Stir dry ingredients into wet until just combined. Lightly grease your hands and roll 3/4-inch balls of dough. Place the balls of dough 2 inches apart on baking sheets, leaving room for them to puff up and spread as they bake. Use your thumb to make a large well in the center of each ball of dough and fill each well with a small dollop of jam (I found it easiest to put the jam in a plastic bag, cut off a corner and pipe it into the cookies). Sprinkle each cookie with a few pieces of toasted almond. Bake, 1 sheet at a time until the tops of the cookies are slightly brown, 6 to 9 minutes. Remove baking sheet from oven, cool slightly and then transfer cookies to a rack to cool completely.