The decent thing to do, after a day filled with turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy and stuffing and apple pie and pumpkin pie and pecan pie and who knows what-all, would be to talk about salad. Instead, I thought I’d talk about cookies.
Cookies, after all, are a lot more fun than salad. There’s something almost magical about them. You start with an assortment of rather ho-hum ingredients — butter, sugar, flour, and eggs — and less than an hour later you’ve created bite-sized little morsels of happiness, like some sort of ancient alchemist.
And since happiness is one of the things we most want to share throughout the upcoming holidays, I’ve already started making thumbprint cookies — shaping soft buttery dough into little balls, rolling them in chopped nuts, and smushing them down with my thumb before baking them to golden brown. These crumbly bits of shortbread filled with fruity American Spoon Red Raspberry Preserves are absolutely divine. They look beautiful and taste wonderful, yet they’re incredibly simple to make — a perfect and very special holiday treat.
Thumbprint Cookies
(makes about 3 dozen)
printable recipe
2/3 cup (11 Tbsp.) butter at room temperature
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs, separated
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup pecans
1 jar American Spoon® Red Raspberry Preserves (or any other flavor American Spoon® Preserves or Spoon Fruit)
1) In a mixing bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer until softened. Add sugar, egg yolks, vanilla and half the flour. Beat until thoroughly combined, then beat in remaining flour. Cover and chill for one hour.
2) Grease a cookie sheet and set aside. Preheat oven to 375°F.
3) Slightly beat egg whites. Finely chop nuts.
4) Form dough into 1″ balls. Roll each ball in egg whites, then in the chopped nuts. Arrange 1″ apart on cookie sheet. With your thumb, make an indentation in each cookie.
5) Bake 10-12 minutes. Remove from cookie sheet and cool on a wire rack. Fill the centers with your favorite flavors of American Spoon® Preserves or Spoon Fruits.
Hi Megan: I’m Chris’ mom’s friend and I’m gaining weight just reading this recipe. But since I’ve become an American Spoon online purchaser, I have peach preserves ready. Brought the cheese platter with American Spoon Fig Conserve to Thanksgiving at Jill’s and it was awesome. Will do a repeat at my family’s celebration this Sunday. I love your blog! Karen
Hello, Karen! I’m so glad you like cheese & fig conserve as much as I do. Hope both of your Thanksgiving celebrations were lovely!
Try rolling them in uncooked steel cut oatmeal instead of the pecans. Am going to try using lemon curd instead of the raspberry preserves.
These are an old family favorite. It really makes an old-world taste difference if you use unsalted (sweet) butter. Also, I use the back of a wooden spoon to make the indentation (wiggle it a little bit to widen the hole) and fill with the preserves before baking. Doesn’t affect the taste or texture. After cooling, you can stack them between sheets of waxed paper and freeze, without affecting the taste, for up to 2 months. A Christmas tradition in our house.
Thumbprints are baked at the co-op where I shop here in Minneapolis, and they come in peach, strawberry and raspberry; however I am anxious to try the Spoon Foods version, as these are my favorite kinds of cookies. It is the pecan finish and how the pecans are ground and seasoned that can make the difference in these kinds of cookies. The Fig conserve sounds good. These cookies go great with coffee or roosibos tea. I remember eating a cookie Awreys used to do with peacans and pink sugar at Christmas. If anyone from the Detroit area remembers those, and liked the pecan consistency and flavor, thumbprints are for you!
I love that every family seems to have its own special variation on thumbprint cookies. Rolling them in oatmeal sounds delicious, and the wooden spoon tip is one I’ll definitely try on my next batch. I’m glad to know they can be frozen, too! I think the Fig Conserve would be a wonderful filling, Karolyn. Thanks to all three of you ladies for sharing your variations!
Yummy recipe!
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