Tante Line Plaetzchen

These are called Jam Thumbprints in English, but I far prefer this name, translated it is Aunt Lina's cookies. My mother's name was Linde, and some of our relatives would call this Tante Linde Plaetzchen. Somehow, that never seemed right to me. Too, these cookies are the crux of a long-time argument between my sister and me, and my brother and his wife. They maintain that they should be made small, teaspoon-sized; we maintain that they taste better tablespoon-sized. So now every year we make our own batch, and they make theirs. They make them the wrong size, of course... Really, they taste better large...

Tante Line Plaetzchen
2 cups butter
4 egg yellows
1 cup sugar
4 cups flour
3 tsp vanilla extract
raspberry (or other) jam

Vigorously stir the butter, then add the other ingredients, the vanilla coming last. Roll the dough into balls after kneading it for several minutes. Press a small hole in the ball with the thumb and fill this hole with raspberry jam. Bake at 300F (150C) for 15 minutes.