Happy National Cookie Day!

I was informed via The Twitter this morning that today is National Cookie Day. Which is clearly the Universe sending me a message that yes, I should in fact, bake cookies today.

I’d been thinking about making the Hazelnut Rosemary Jam cookies I made last Christmas, since i have a bunch of fresh rosemary leftover from Thanksgiving, and I’d hate to see it go to waste. I found this recipe randomly online, if I remember correctly. I can’t remember what I was searching for (or why), but I was intrigued. I usually use rosemary for cooking, not for baking (particularly not cookies), but much like my odd culinary interest in lavender, I found it interesting.

I modified the recipe to use pecans instead of hazelnuts, likely because I had pecans in the cabinet. (I imagine I could have used walnuts as a substitute as well, though I haven’t tried it myself.) The rosemary gives a subtle flavor to the cookie – it doesn’t overpower the cookie, and the raspberry jam is still the central taste, but the rosemary compliments it nicely. It was a pleasant surprise.

In addition to the rosemary, I also have a practically full jar of apricot preserves that I opened to glaze the apple tart I made for Thanksgiving dessert. I want to use some of that up as well, so I think I’m going to try these cookies again today, but with apricot jam instead of raspberry. The raspberry was pretty awesome, so it’ll be an interesting comparison, even if I made the raspberry version a year ago. Will report back later.

I leave you with this clip from the seminal ’80s classic, Troop Beverly Hills, starring the fabulous Shelley Long:

Happy Cookie Day!