Confession: I’d never made thumbprint cookies before, but I was craving salted caramels, and figured this was a good way to combine that craving and get a daily cookie recipe.
These can be easily adapted with any type of filling – I’ll include recipes for the fudge and the caramels, but you could put almost anything else you wanted.
Thumbprint cookies
10 tablespoons salted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups flour
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2) In a stand mixer, combine the sugar and butter until completely mixed, 2-3 minutes. Stir in vanilla.
3) Slowly add flour, and mix on increasingly high speeds until it’s combined.
4) Roll cookies into balls, and place on cookie sheet. Cook for 10 minutes, then remove from oven.
5) Using a melon baller or a coffee scoop, indent each cookie (this is where the “thumbprint” comes from). Bake for another 7-8 minutes, and let cool slightly.
6) Before cookies cool completely, fill the center with the topping of your choice – two recipes are below, or you can use jam (my third choice). Let cool completely before eating.
Fudge topping
2 tablespoons butter
2 oz semisweet chocolate
1 tsp corn syrup
Mix in microwave safe bowl, and zap for 30 seconds at a time until fully combined.
Salted Whiskey Caramel topping
Take this recipe: salted whiskey caramels and make it, but only cook the caramel until it hits 234 degrees. Let cool slightly before adding to cookies – then sprinkle with sea salt.