Cubicle kitchen: Marmalade-n Savory Thumbprints

The company I work for has locations around the world, so I have teammates across the country and the globe.  The disadvantage for those whose cube do not dwell in the same office as mine is that they can't taste my treats.  I'm working on this, but in the meantime, one of my colleagues has figured out how to get involved on the front end.  He works in Arizona, but he's visited a few times.  On one such visit, he mentioned having made some habanero pepper orange marmalade.  This drew oohs and aahs from myself and others.  For the holiday season, he sent us a few jars.  Savory Santa!

I knew instantly that my jar was going to be 'paid forward' in the form of treats, the question was in what form.  The heat from the habanero had me leaning in a decidedly savory direction, especially because the serving suggestions were to glaze meat, or spread sparingly on toast.  I didn't want to try and make orange cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting and then throw it of by hiding a spoonful of this inside.

I liked the simplicity of this recipe, with just a handful of ingredients, I was sure that I wouldn't have colliding flavors.  I made my own addition of some cornmeal because I feel like corn and heat in baked goods is a natural combination.

There's more marmalade in the jar (and more cornmeal in the bag), so I'll be trying out more savory treats in the weeks to come.  Maybe a marmalade-swirled bread?  I am open to suggestions.

Marmalade-n Thumbprints
(adapted from Megan's Cookin')
made 40 cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
• 4 Tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, softened
• 2 Tablespoons Brummel & Brown spread
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup cornmeal
• about 1/4 cup habanero orange marmalade

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Cream together cheese, butter, and spread with a hand mixer.  (Megan used a food processor, this is probably easier, but I didn't feel like putting that whole thing together and then cleaning all the parts.)
3. Add flour and mix until you've created a crumbly dough.
4. Roll the dough into balls of about a teaspoon each.  You might need to form these a little, as I said, the dough is crumbly.  
5. Place balls onto a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet and into the oven for five minutes.
6. Carefully remove the cookies from the oven and, using the end of a wooden spoon or other utensil, make a small indentation in the cookie.  Spoon a little marmalade into the created crater, and return the cookies into the oven for another 10 minutes, or until the tops of the cookies are just lightly browned.