Back to Old Ways: Thumbprint Cookies

Alex likes to make baking requests. I went through a streak of listening to his requests and making the dessert within days of him mentioning what he wanted. Then something happened, Venus must have been in the house of Mars or something (note: I have no idea if Venus can even be in the house of Mars). The point is, there was a shift. I stopped listening to my husband. If he said he wanted something I just said "yeah, ok." Maybe I was peeved at the fact that he gets a delicious assortment of sweets each week courtesy of Tuesdays With Dorie and monthly courtesy of Daring Bakers and yet he still asked for more. Or maybe it's that I was too busy being a slave to school that I really couldn't handle anymore requests. Well, I'm sure he's happy to know that there has been a shift back to how things were. Heck, he probably doesn't even know that there was a change; we are talking about the man who makes a hilarious joke one day and a day later you can say the exact same joke and he'll totally think you came up with it.

This weekend he made a request for thumbprint cookies. Only he didn't know they were thumbprint cookies. He said he wanted the cookies with jelly in the middle. I wanted to make a cookie that wouldn't be too involved and that would yield just enough cookies for the two of us. One of the websites I love is Joy of Baking and they had a great recipe for thumbprint cookies. I didn't have any nuts in our pantry, so I used turbinado sugar instead in the dipping part of the recipe. The cookies are very light (which was a surprise) and the best part was that the thumbprints were of Alex's thumb (this was his first time "baking").

Thumbprint Cookies
Source: Joy of Baking (here)

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup granulated white sugar
1 large egg, separated
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 tsp salt
3/4 cup hazelnut, walnut, almonds, or pecans, toasted and finely chopped (I used about 1/2 cup turbinado sugar)
1/4 cup jam

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolk and vanilla extract and beat until combined.

In separate bowl whisk together the flour and salt. Add the flour mixture to the batter and beat just until combined. If the batter is too soft to roll into balls, refrigerate for 30 min or freeze for 5-10 minutes.

In a small bowl, whisk the egg white until frothy. Place the nuts (or sugar) on a plate. Roll the dough into 1 inch balls (about a dozen balls). Taking one ball at a time, dip it in the egg white and then in the nuts (or sugar). Place the dough on the baking sheet and repeat. Place the cookies about 1 inch apart. Using your thumb, make an indentation in the middle of the cookie and fill with jam of your choice (about 1/4 tsp).

Can you tell which one Alex filled?

Bake for 13-15 minutes or until golden. Remove from oven and place on a rack to cool.

All puffy and golden.

Double the goodness.

This is what the Red Sea should look like :)

Enjoy!