A #Recipe from the Cat Café: Thumbprint Cookies #MFRWHooks

Coffee and Crushes at the Cat Café: A Furrever Friends Sweet Romance is now available free for review – click here to claim your review copy (Kindle, ePub, or PDF).
Since I'm writing about a café, of course I mention recipes. Here's a favorite. These cookies are easy to make, looks pretty, and people adore them. Since you add the toppings after baking, you can easily do several varieties – I like lemon curd or lime curd, jam, and ginger spread.
Baked cookies with lime curd and apricot jamThumbprint Cookies
These pretty cookies are perfect for a party. Get several different types of jam in bright colors. What else could you use in place of jam? How about a small square of cream cheese or a small piece of soft caramel candy? Or try a few chocolate chips for chocolate thumbprints.
You can even press a chocolate kiss or miniature peanut butter cup into the cookie. In that case, bake the cookies 10 to 12 minutes first, until they are done. Once you add the candy, do not bake them anymore.
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature2/3 cup sugar1 large egg yolk1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 1/4 cups flour1/2 teaspoon salt6 ounces jam, any flavor
    Preheat the oven to 375°F. Grease a cookie sheet, or use parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.    Beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. This should take 2 to 3 minutes with an electric mixer on medium-high speed.       Separate the egg yolk from the white. Reserve the egg white for another use. Beat the egg yolk and vanilla extract into the batter. Add the flour and salt and mix until the dough comes together in a ball.    Scoop up spoonfuls of dough and form them into 1-inch balls. Place the balls on the cookie sheet at least two inches apart. Flatten each ball slightly with your thumb or the back of a small spoon. You want an indentation in the center, like a little bowl.    Bake the cookies for 8 to 10 minutes or until bottoms barely start to turn golden. Remove the baking sheet from oven.    Use the back of a spoon to press the indentations in a little more. Fill each one with about 1/2 teaspoon jam. Bake for an additional 3 to 4 minutes, so the jam or chocolate melts slightly and the edges of the cookies turn lightly golden.    Transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool.Tip: Use two spoons for the jam. Scoop the jam with one spoon. Then use the back of the other spoon to slide the jam onto the cookie.


Coffee and Crushes atthe Cat Café: A Furrever Friends Sweet Romance
What do you do when you meet the guy of your dreams? Set him up with your sister, of course.
Kari doesn't have time for love when she's opening her new cat café. Renovating an old restaurant, hiring employees, fighting with the health inspector – oh, and welcoming 16 shelter cats – keeps her plenty busy. She's doing this for the cats, the community, and most of all her family. The café will give her sister, Marley, a job worthy of her baking skills.
Then a tattooed military vet wanders in claiming to be a master baker himself. The café doesn't need another baker, but maybe Marley needs a man. Surely she'll fall for a guy this sweet, this sexy, this tasty.

Colin has other ideas. It's Kari who makes him want to pour on the sugar and turn up the heat. But he's spent the last two years recovering from physical and psychological wounds. Is he really ready for a relationship? He's not even sure he should commit to Samson, the fluffy marshmallow of a cat who steals his heart.

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Kris Bock writes novels of romance, mystery, and suspense. Her Furrever Friends Sweet Romance series features the employees and customers at a cat café. Watch as they fall in love with each other and shelter cats.
Kris also writes romantic suspense set in the Southwestern U.S. If you love Mary Stewart or Barbara Michaels, try Kris Bock’s stories of treasure hunting, archaeology, and intrigue in the Southwest. Read excerpts at www.krisbock.com or visit her Amazon page. Sign up for the Kris Bock newsletter  for announcements of new books, sales, and more.