These cookies are perfect for a tea party, if you have tea parties, and my English family has lots of tea parties. I was skeptical of a cookie recipe without a leavening agent or eggs, but these turned out buttery and delicious. They reminded me of scones, if you turned a scone into a cookie. The cornstarch combined with the flour makes faux cake flour, and I rolled these in sugar in the raw before baking. This gives them a great crunch and a great sparkle. Everything looks yummier rolled in sugar. 🙂 You can use any kind of preserves that you’d like, I used raspberry, blackberry, and strawberry. Apricot would be good too. If you fancy marmalade, you could even use that. :

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 TBSP milk
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cups cornstarch

Sugar in the raw (or plain white granulated sugar) in a bowl for rolling
Jam of your choice

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 375° and line a cookie sheet with parchment or wax paper.

In a large bowl, cream butter with brown sugar, white sugar, vanilla, and milk. Mix in the flour and cornstarch together.

Form the dough into one inch balls and roll into the sugar in the raw. Place on prepared cookie sheet, about an inch and a half apart. They will spread a little bit. Use a half teaspoon measuring spoon (or your thumb) to press down on the center of each cookie and form a well for the jam. Neatly fill each cookie with a small amount of jam. To do this neatly, I filled a sandwich baggie with some jam and cut a hole in the corner of the bag to form a tip and piped it in like frosting.

Bake in preheated oven for 13-15 minutes until cookies are just beginning to turn golden around the edges. Cool COMPLETELY before serving.

Makes 16 small tea cookies. Enjoy!