When the holidays roll around, I find myself in the kitchen whipping up plenty of festive Christmas recipes including Italian cookies, Oreo stuffed cookies, eggnog cookies, Nutella cookies and these beautiful little thumbprint cookies. Thumbprint cookies are a classic for good reason – they’re simple yet look so impressive, and they couldn’t be any easier to make! You can customize your cookies by adding any number of fillings and coatings for a sweet treat that’s delicious any time of the year.
Thumbprint Cookies Ingredients
To make this recipe, you will need butter, granulated sugar, light brown sugar, a large egg, vanilla extract, all purpose flour, baking soda, salt and jam.
How Do You Make Thumbprint Cookies?
Thumbprint cookies are all about the perfect dough that bakes up crisp on the outside, yet soft on the inside. Make this dough by beating sugar, brown sugar and butter together. Mix in an egg, some vanilla, flour and baking soda and the dough is ready to go. Chill the dough in the fridge and roll it into balls. Dip the dough balls in sugar, then place them on a baking sheet. Press wells into the cookies with a spoon. Fill the cookies with a little jam, you can use any flavor of your choice. Bake until light golden brown, then cool and enjoy.
Tips For Perfect Cookies
Keep the dough cold when you roll it into balls. If the dough warms up, it can get sticky and the balls can become rough instead of smooth. You can place sticky dough in the fridge or freezer to chill if needed. After you put the jam in the cookies, place the sheet pan of cookies in the freezer for about 10 minutes before baking. Chilling the dough prevents the dough from spreading too much as it bakes. Some dark jams and jellies can “stain” the dough of the cookies. If you are worried about staining, avoid using blackberry or grape jams or jellies. I typically use raspberry, strawberry or apricot jam. Make sure you don’t overfill the cookies or the jam may bubble over and run down the sides of the cookies. If your balls of dough crack as you make the indentations in the middle, your dough may be overly cold and stiff. You can simply patch any cracks with your fingers.
Flavor Variations
While this recipe is delicious as written, you can easily customize the flavors to suit your tastes.
Coatings: Try rolling your balls of cookie dough in coatings such as sprinkles, coconut, finely minced almonds, pecans, walnuts or cinnamon sugar. Fillings: The filling possibilities are endless and include ingredients such as Nutella, lemon curd, chocolate ganache, marshmallow cream or caramel sauce.
This thumbprint cookie recipe is so fun to make because you can fill the cookies with all different kinds of flavors. This is a holiday classic that never goes out of style!
