These lovely confections — which happen to be my father’s favorite Christmas cookie — go by many names: thumbprint cookies, Swedish tea cakes, and bird’s nest cookies, to name a few. But whatever moniker you give them, you will surely call them delicious.

worth the work and mess, thumbprint cookies are a must-have in our house during the holidays.

This festive looking treat consists of a melt-in-your-mouth, buttery shortbread-type cookie, swathed in a crunchy coating of your favorite chopped nuts, all  embracing a tiny dollop of a sweet confiture of your choice — I usually use strawberry or raspberry jam since they’re a festive crimson hue and I typically have a jar on hand, but rhubarb preserve, pomegranate or bakeapple (cloudberry) jam would make excellent choices as well.

While making thumbprint cookies is by no means difficult, they aren’t exactly the tidiest  or quickest cookie to make, thanks to a few stages in their both their preparation and baking. Making thumbprint cookies is a wonderful opportunity to create a “quality time” family tradition by employing the helpful hands of children for rolling, coating, indenting and even filling the cookies.

adding the crunch factor: dip in egg whites and then roll in chopped nuts.

cookies are indented once before baking and then again after 5 minutes in the oven to prevent the impressions from puffing up.

Thumbprint Cookies

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
2 egg yolks

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

2 egg whites, fork beaten
1 cup finely chopped almonds (or other nuts)

red jam or jelly

make it special with muscovado brown sugar, unblanched almonds and eggs from the farmer's market.

roll balls of cookie dough in egg white and coat in chopped almonds.

Tip

• These cookies may be filled immediately after they come out of the oven, or you can allow them to cool, store in an air-tight container and fill at a later time.
• You can use whatever sort of nuts you like; I like almonds, and on occasion have also used green pistachios for a unique flavor and added festive touch.

fill indents in twice-baked, twice-indented cookies with yummy red jam.

Directions

1. Cream butter and brown sugar; beat in egg yolks.
2. In separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt; add to butter mixture and mix well.
3. Form dough into small (1-inch) balls; dip in egg whites to coat; roll in chopped nuts; place on baking sheet 2 inches apart.
4. Create an indent in the middle of each ball of dough by pressing down with your thumb, creating a “nest-like” shape.
5. Bake in preheated (325 degree F) oven for 5 minutes.
6. Remove from oven and quickly press the indents again with your thumb; return to oven and continue baking for another 10-13 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and fill indents with jam while cookies are still warm.
8. Allow to cool completely before eating. Makes 40 cookies.
   

   a family favorite. yum!

   Recipe Adapted From: Company’s Coming: Cookies

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