Happy Fourth of July Weekend! We hope you’re having a safe and fun one. We happen to be hanging out with our family in Pittsburgh all weekend and maybe sharing a few of these delicious thumbprint cookies with them. Or keeping them all to ourselves…
This recipe happened to be a Christmas staple of Marguerite’s, but there are only so many desserts we can share with you in December. So, we adapted the decor of these thumbprint cookies to be a little more seasonally appropriate.
Aaron and I decided to make the thumbprint cookies with nuts on the outside like Marguerite described, as well as a way we were more familiar with: substituting the nuts for sprinkles (or “jimmies” as we Pittsburghers call them.)
We made these cookies twice, both times about 6 with nuts and 8 with sprinkles. The first time we made them, they were so dry! They crumbled in our hands and were not pleasant to eat. The second time, we cut back by about two tablespoons on flour and we used only softened butter instead of a butter/Crisco combo (noted below.) This would have been much better if one of us (we’re not sure whom) hadn’t bumped the oven during the thumbprinting step! Somehow it got turned up to 425 and our cookies had burned bottoms when we removed them. The third time is the charm I suppose?
The nut version of the cookies were good. I’m not a huge fan of nuts, but the sugar off-set them nicely. I wish we had put an almond in the center of the nut cookies, but I was sort of on a roll with the piping bag…
The sprinkle versions were amazing! Aaron, his cousin Kiersten, and myself all have fond memories of our childhood in a Pittsburgh grocery store called Giant Eagle. Whenever your parents dragged you in with them, you could always count on the friendly people behind the bakery and deli counters to give your adorable self a free slice of American cheese and a free thumbprint cookie, just for being a cute kid. This recipe definitely got me nostalgic for those days, especially with the substitution of sprinkles for nuts.
Not only are thumbprint cookies a classic, but they’re so adaptable for any time of the year. Halloween? Black and orange sprinkles! Valentines day? Pink and red icing! The possibilities are endless.
Tell us, are you making anything fun for the holiday weekend?
- 1/2 cup butter softened
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1 cup flour use less if cookies seem dry
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 egg white
- 3/4 cup chopped nuts or sprinkles
- Mix butter, brown sugar, vanilla, and egg yolk thoroughly.
- Sift flour and salt together and stir in. Stir in a little at a time to ensure cookies don't get too dry.
- Roll into one inch balls.
- Dip in slightly beaten egg white. Roll in finely chopped nuts.
- Place about one inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for five minutes. Remove from oven.
- Quickly place thumb gently on top of each cookie. Return to oven and bake 5-8 more minutes. Cool.
- Place in thumbprints a bit of candied fruit, jelly, or tinted powdered sugar icing.
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