• Preheat oven to 350F.  Line cookie sheets with parchment paper
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
• In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until fluffy - about 5 minutes.  Add vanilla and egg and beat to combine.
• Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture in 3 parts, beating gently just until the flour is incorporated.  
• With your hand, grab the dough and roll it around a bit to make sure all the dry ingredients are combined.  You should have a soft lump of dough.

Prepare the Cookies for Baking

• This process will go quickly if you prepare before you dive in.  Have your prepared dough and lined cookie sheet nearby.  Find a flat tablespoon measure - one that you can scrape level against a bowl (see photo).  Fill a 1/4 measuring cup about 1/2 full of flour.  Open and stir the jam so that it can drop from a teaspoon.  Now you're ready.
  
• With a flat tablespoon, scrape up a tablespoon of dough, leveling it against the bowl. Peel it out with your fingers and roll it into a ball. Drop the ball on your cookie sheet. Immediately press a depression into the ball with another, smaller round half-teaspoon (see photo).  Place the small spoon into the flour, giving it a good coat.  This will make it easy to release in the next cookie.

  Leave about 2" between cookies.  They do spread a bit.  

  If you wait to make the depressions, the dough will dry out and you'll get cracked cookies. 
  
  
• When the sheet is full, fill each depression with about 3/4 tsp of jam.  I use a simple table spoon - it slides off easier.  
  
• Bake the cookies at 350F for 15 or 16 minutes - just until you can see some golden color along the bottom edges.  Remove from oven and cool on the sheet for about five minutes, then cool on a rack.
• Store tightly sealed.  They will dry out very quickly, so to retain the moist chewiness don't leave them out!