Thumbprint cookies are delicate butter shortbread rounds pressed with your thumb, filled with jam, and rolled in chopped nuts for texture and flavor. They're ideal for holiday platters and require minimal ingredients and no special equipment.
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Mix butter, sugar, egg yolk and vanilla thoroughly. Add flour and salt and stir inches Roll dough into small balls. Beat egg white slightly with fork. Dip balls in egg white. Roll in nuts. Place on ungreased baking sheet.*.
Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven and gently depress indents into a cookie with a small rounded implement while still hot. Place cookies on a cooling rack. Let cool. Pipe or spoon jam into cooled centers of the cookie.
*At this point, you could press your thumb into the cookie ball before baking, hence the name of the cookie. Not having had success with this method, I created a different method as shared above.
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. Dough can be refrigerated up to 2 days before shaping and baking.
Yes. Finely chop pistachios, walnuts, pecans, or hazelnuts. Use the same 3/4 cup amount and finely chop so they adhere to the dough.
Any jam or jelly works—apricot, raspberry, strawberry, and seedless varieties are most common. Use 1 teaspoon per cookie and avoid overfilling, which can cause seeping during baking.
Use thick jam or jelly rather than thin fruit spreads, fill cookies after they cool slightly, and don't overfill the thumb indent. Bake at the temperature specified to ensure cookies set quickly.
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. They do not require refrigeration. Make-ahead: prepare dough, refrigerate up to 2 days, then shape and bake.
The egg white helps cookies hold shape and adhere the nut coating. Substituting reliably is difficult; use a plant-based egg replacer (1 tablespoon mixed with 3 tablespoons water) as a 1:1 swap for the egg white, though results may vary.
