A thumbprint cookie is just an empty shell until you fill the shallow divot in its center. Spoon in jam or melted chocolate and an everyday cookie dough, like my recipe for Fresh Ground Peanut Butter Cookies, transforms from a lunchbox staple to a holiday tray feature.
My original dough recipe, with chopped nuts mixed in, works for thumbprint cookies, but rolling the nuts around the dough balls creates an attractive coating (and disguises cracks). Choose inside or outside: Using the nuts both in the dough and as a coating makes the cookies crumble.
Homemade jams and jellies traditionally fill thumbprint cookies. Pop open several jars in a rainbow of flavors to sneakily make a single dough batch look like you baked all day. For chocolate filling, upgrade from store-bought candies to the rich, creamy ganache recipe I shared last week. Piping in slightly firm chocolate creates true peanut butter blossoms. If you don’t have piping tools, use ganache fluid enough to spoon into the hollows.
Peanut Butter Thumbprint Cookies with Ganache
Makes about 72 cookies
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup fresh-ground, unsalted peanut butter, room temperature
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
10 tablespoons milk
2-1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sea salt
1-1/3 cups unsalted dry-roasted peanuts, finely chopped
1-1/4 cups ganache, room temperature
In a large bowl, mix the butter into the peanut butter. Cream in the sugar, and then mix in the egg, vanilla and milk until well blended. In a separate bowl, mix the flour with the baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, stirring until just incorporated. Cover the dough and freeze it for about 20 minutes, until easier to shape.
Roll a spoonful of chilled dough into a smooth ball about 1 inch in diameter, and then roll the ball in the chopped peanuts until coated and place it on an ungreased cookie sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough, placing the balls about 1-1/2 inches apart, until the sheet is full.
Bake at 375°F for eight to 10 minutes, until just set; let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 1 minute, and then press your thumb into each cookie’s center, leaving an indent. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Scrape any crumbs from the baking sheet and continue baking the remaining dough.
Let freshly made or refrigerated ganache sit at room temperature until it’s the thickness of frosting but still pliable. Scoop it into a piping bag with a star-shaped or other decorative tip. To fill each thumbprint, hold the bag straight over each cookie, squeeze just firmly enough to release a dollop of ganache and then pull up to form a point and release the tip from the ganache blossom. Store the cookies for up to a week in an airtight container at room temperature.
Julie Laing is a Bigfork-based cookbook author and food blogger at TwiceAsTasty.com.