Salad in a Jar

and other secrets of a home economist

Thumbprint Cookies — His Favorite

marbleized, thumbprint cookies, frosting, icing, baby shower, holidays, recipe, marbleized

Holiday Thumbprint Cookies are a traditional party cookie rolled in balls then in pecans. Marbleize the frosting for a fancy occasion or holiday.

THUMBPRINT COOKIES
In the beginning of this blog, my husband of 33 years asked when I was going to post thumbprint cookies. He kept asking. Then he asked again. And again. Now that Christmas is almost here, so are thumbprint cookies.  My man is happy.
Holiday Thumbprint Cookies

Holiday Thumbprint Cookies - Betty Crocker's Cooky Book

The recipe is simple–straight out of the Betty Crocker Cooky Book, copyright 1963. But it’s the icing where I like to get creative.

Instead of using a solid color icing, I drop the tiniest amount of liquid food coloring into my bowl of icing.  Without stirring, I carefully use my spoon to pick up a little of the color but try to get mostly white.  Then I use a second spoon to push the icing on to the cookie.  This process will slightly mix and swirl the color.  No extra effort really. Love it!

How to roll get Holiday Thumbprint Cookies ready to bake:

storyboard thumbprint cookies_edited-1.jpg

How to marbleize the frosting for Holiday Thumbprint Cookies:

icing storyboard_edited-1.jpg

Print

Holiday Thumbprint Cookies

  • Author: Adapted from Betty Crocker's Cooky Book
  • Prep Time: 45 minutes
  • Cook Time: 15 minutes
  • Total Time: 1 hour
  • Yield: 16 cookies
  • Category: Dessert
  • Method: oven-baked
  • Cuisine: American
Print Recipe

Description

A shortbread cookie rolled in pecans that is absolutely required on our Christmas cookie tray.

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup shortening
  • 1/4 cup butter, room temperature
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 egg, separated
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup pecans, finely chopped
  • Icing:
  • 1/2 tablespoon butter, melted
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 1-2 tablespoons milk

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Cream shortening, butter, brown sugar, egg yolk and vanilla. Add flour and salt. Combine well.
  3. Roll dough into balls. Using a small ice cream dipper will aid in uniformity.
  4. Beat egg white slightly with fork. Dip balls in egg white, then roll in chopped pecans.
  5. Place balls on ungreased baking sheet, (I use a silicone baking mat) about 1 inch apart.
  6. Place in oven 1 minute. Remove and use your finger to quickly press indentation into the center of each cookie. Place back in the oven for another 10-12 minutes or until the pecans are toasty. Remove from oven and immediately use your finger to repress the indentation into the middle of the cookies.
  7. Make the icing while cookies bake. Add color using process described above. Or leave the icing uncolored. Or stir in food coloring to make uniform color. It’s your preference. Many people do jelly–but not at my house.

Keywords: cookies, Christmas, frosted cookies, thumbprint cookies

 

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  1. next time fill the “prints” with maraschino cherry frosting!

    Ingredients
    1 cup butter, room temperature
    2 lbs powdered sugar
    2 Tbsp chopped maraschino cherries
    6 Tbsp juice from maraschino cherry jar (plus more if needed)
    1 tsp almond extract
    Instructions
    Beat softened butter in a large mixing bowl until completely smooth and fluffy. Add the chopped cherries.
    Gradually beat in about two cup of powdered sugar.
    Beat in the maraschino cherry juice and almond extract until completely combined.
    Gradually beat in the rest of the powdered sugar, about a cup at a time.
    If your frosting is too thick, beat in additional maraschino cherry juice one teaspoon at a time.

    Reply

  2. Hi Paula, I made these for a Christmas party last night and they were delicious! I made two batches: one rolled in pecans with green swirl frosting and one rolled in shredded coconut with red swirl frosting. Both looked beautiful and tasted great. I have always done thumbprint cookies with jam but I like the frosting much better. Thanks for the good idea and good recipe.

    Reply

  4. What if you stirred peppermint flavoring into the icing. I thought these were peppermint toppped cookies when I saw the photo – might be good!?!?

    Reply

  9. I LOVE my BC Cooky Book (or, my mom’s – originally). It’s where I turn to first for “what to make”! These look great – I love how you improvised the the “thumb”! Innovative and festive – definitely worth a post! Happy Holidays!

    Reply