Thumbprint Cookies

Soft, buttery, and filled with a brightly colored jam (or sometimes salted caramel), thumbprint cookies are universally loved, as evidenced by the fact that the batch I brought to my daughter’s school disappeared in minutes. These cookies have the best name because you use your thumb to make the indentation where the jam goes. They’re also a great project for kids to make at home. Who doesn’t like poking cookie dough and filling them with jam?

During testing, I made batch after batch of these cookies to make sure that the dough was easy to work with, didn’t crack, and the cookies held their shape when baked. Adding cream cheese to the dough was key; it delivered a cookie with smooth edges that didn’t flatten out. On top of that, knowing when to fill the thumbprint with jam took some trial and error. But all my work paid off! These thumbprint cookies are perfect on a holiday cookie plate, but are also great at any other time of the year when you want a pretty little sweet treat.

• Butter: You’ll need 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter.
• Cream cheese: This makes the dough soft and keeps it from cracking when you make the indentations. Don’t skip it!
• Pantry ingredients: Grab all-purpose flour, vanilla extract, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt.
• Egg: Because there’s cream cheese in the dough too, you’ll only need one large egg.
• Jam: The sky’s the limit here! Pick out your favorite jam, and you can use as many flavors as you want. I prefer seedless jam, but if you’d like to use one that’s chunky, chop up any big pieces first. Some fun flavors include apricot vanilla bean, fig, or strawberry thyme.

1. Make the dough. Cream butter, cream cheese, and sugar together. Beat in the egg, vanilla, salt, and finally the flour, baking soda, and baking powder.
2. Chill the dough. The dough will be sticky, so refrigerate for 1 to 1 1/2 hours before forming dough balls. Don’t chill the dough too long though, or the dough balls will crack when you press a thumb into them.
3. Form the cookies. Scoop out the dough in 2-teaspoon portions (this spring-loaded scoop works great), and roll into balls. Press a damp thumb, which keeps the dough from sticking, into the center of each one to make an indentation. If the dough cracks slightly, just push those parts back together. Fill up one baking sheet.
4. Do the first bake. Bake for 10 minutes without the jam, because if you put the jam in before baking, the jam will dry up and not look very attractive or shiny. While these are baking, fill up the second baking sheet with more dough balls so they’re ready to bake after the first sheet is ready.
5. Remake the indentation and fill with jam. Take the partially baked cookies out of the oven. The cookies will have puffed and lost some of the indentation, so remake it with the rounded part of a 1/2 teaspoon (dampen it first, so it doesn’t stick!). Fill the indentation with jam.
6. Do the second bake. Bake again until the cookies are set and lightly browned around the edges, four to five minutes more.

There are two ways you can freeze the cookies. 

• The first way is to bake, cool, and freeze them solid on the baking sheet. Transfer to a zip-top freezer bag and freeze, then just thaw at room temperature. 
• You can also freeze the unbaked dough. Shape the dough balls, then press the indentation in with your thumb. Freeze until solid, then also store in a zip-top bag for up to two months. Bake straight from the freezer for the same amount of time.