President's Day Cherry Thumbprint Cookies

What a fun recipe to celebrate President's Day! First, to explain why we were cooking with cherries, I told the story of George Washington and the Cherry Tree.  Although I did not read this story word for word, this version served as inspiration. It is taken from the George Washington Inn and Estate website: 

When George was about six years old, he was made the wealthy master of a hatchet of which, like most little boys, he was extremely fond. He went about chopping everything that came his way. One day, as he wandered about the garden amusing himself by hacking his mother’s pea sticks, he found a beautiful, young English cherry tree, of which his father was most proud. He tried the edge of his hatchet on the trunk of the tree and barked it so that it died.

Some time after this, his father discovered what had happened to his favorite tree. He came into the house in great anger, and demanded to know who the mischievous person was who had cut away the bark. Nobody could tell him anything about it. Just then George, with his little hatchet, came into the room. “George,” said his father, “do you know who has killed my beautiful little cherry tree yonder in the garden? I would not have taken five guineas for it!”

This was a hard question to answer, and for a moment George was staggered by it, but quickly recovering himself he cried: “I cannot tell a lie, father, you know I cannot tell a lie! I did cut it with my little hatchet.” The anger died out of his father’s face, and taking the boy tenderly in his arms, he said: “My son, that you should not be afraid to tell the truth is more to me than a thousand trees! Yes – though they were blossomed with silver and had leaves of the purest gold!”

After we talked about the virtues of leadership, we continued with baking cookies!

First, we mixed the butter and sugar together by stirring and stirring and stirring...which was actually really hard work! 

Once we added the flour, we used our very best tools -- our hands -- to incorporate the ingredients. Once we used our hands, then the butter, sugar and flour transformed from ingredients into dough.

We rolled the dough into balls...

...then pressed our thumbs into the center to make a well to hold the cherries!

Then, we filled the well with cherry pie filling. Each child made their own cookie! 

Look how beautiful the cookies looked before they went into the oven!

Quotes of the day!

• "I have exercise all throughout my body."
• "Is that sugar in that bowl?" "You know, you can use sugar on your skin to make it clean" "No, that's salt."
• "Sometimes when I cook with my mom, she tastes the batter to make sure if tastes good. Then, if she says it tastes okay, my sister and I are like wild dogs."
• Me: "How do you get stronger?" Child 1: "You grow taller and taller..." and Child 2: "...and you eat peas."
• Me: "Who knows the name of the President of the United States?" Class: silence. Teacher: "President...O...(providing partial prompt). Child: "Ocean."

President’s Day Cherry Thumbprint Cookies

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup softened Butter
1/2 cup Sugar
2 cups Flour
Cherry Pie Filling or other jam/pie filling

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 375.
Cream together butter and sugar.
Mix in the flour (The dough will look crumbly; use your hands to incorporate the ingredients).
Roll dough into round balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.
Make thumbprints in each dough ball and fill with cherry pie filling.
Bake for 15 mins until edges start to get lightly brown and the cookie sets.
Allow to cool on cookie sheet for 15 minutes.

Some changes or additions you might consider:

• You might want to mix 1 cup of powdered sugar with 1-2 teaspoons of milk to make a thick glaze. Place it in a ziploc bag and snip the corner to pipe it onto the cookies in perpendicular lines. You could also melt white chocolate chips in the microwave as another option for a drizzle.
• If you aren't crazy about using cherry pie filling, you can thicken frozen cherries with water, sugar and cornstarch. Or, you can look for those cherries in a water (brand: Oregon Fruit Pitted Red Tart Cherries) as an alternative.