Thumbprint cookies are one of those classic recipes that usually surface near Christmas time, for pre-holiday cookie exchange parties, because they are very easy and require pantry ingredients to make. In fact, I'm pretty sure that minus preheating the oven I had these things go from ingredients to cookies in less than 30 minutes without even rushing. Thumbprint cookies usually only contain jelly but I like to make things fun so I included peanut butter to make these peanut butter and jelly thumbprint cookies, a throwback snack to a childhood favorite.
Spring is fresh fruit season and for a lot of people that means making lots of jam. Last year I made a ton of strawberry black pepper jelly and still have a ton left over (that's how much I made, I used plenty during the year!) and the kick from the pepper combined with the jammy strawberry flavor and the creamy peanut butter really take these up a notch. But use any jelly you like spread on white bread and you'll like what comes out in these cookies.
Peanut Butter and Jelly Thumbprint Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 stick of unsalted butter softened
- ⅓ cup white sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 rounded cup of all purpose flour
- ¼ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp creamy peanut butter
- 2 tbsp jelly any flavor (I went with strawberry black pepper)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Cream the softened butter and sugar together for 2 minutes, scraping sides of bowl as needed.
- Add in the egg yolk and vanilla extract, and beat for an additional minute.
- Add the flour and salt, and let beat until the dough comes together and leaves the sides of the bowl.
- Use your hands to roll the dough into 1 inch balls and place on a baking sheet that's covered with a Silpat or parchment paper.
- Once all of the balls are rolled out, use your thumb to create an indention. Don't press through to the bottom of the dough. You can make the indention deeper after baking.
- Bake for 9 minutes.
- Meanwhile, heat up the peanut butter in a small ramekin in 10 second blasts, two times, until the peanut butter is more liquidy.
- Remove the cookies from then oven, and use the rounded end of a wooden spatula to press the indentions a bit deeper, again not going through to the bottom of the cookie.
- Use a smaller spoon to carefully put a small drop of peanut butter in each cookie, and try not to fill the indention more than halfway with peanut butter.
- Use another spoon to repeat the process with the jelly, making sure not to overfill the indention.
- Bake for another 3 minutes, and let cook on a baking rack.
For fancier looking cookies, you could add your jelly in first, then spoon the peanut butter into an icing bag fitted with a star tip and pipe it into the cookies, but I prefer this rustic look for a quicker cookie! Thumbprint cookies are meant to be organic looking hence the use of a thumb to make the well for the filling.