Thumbprint Cookies are a perfect treat for the holidays. A melt in your mouth rustic thumbprint cookie with rye, toasty walnuts, cardamom and tangy apricot jam- a perfect balance of flavors, decadent and lightly sweet with a satisfying crunch.
You are loved just for being who you are, just for existing. ~Ram Dass
Thumbprint Cookies are a classic favorite. Here they are enhanced with rye flour, giving the cookie earthy undertones, which pairs perfectly with cardamom, toasty walnuts, and tart apricot jam. These rustic little gems are like mini fruit tarts; plus rye flour is full of nutrition, so you can eat more. 😉
Gather your ingredients.
We use the food processor to mix the dough for easy one bowl clean up.
Start with grinding the walnuts.
You want the walnuts finely ground (being careful not to turn them into butter).
Set walnuts aside. No need to clean out the container. Add all the dry ingredients.
Pulse butter into the dry mix.
Separate eggs. Mix vanilla and yolks. Add to the food processor.
Pulse until dough comes together.
Roll into a log, cut into 1/2 inch chunks, and roll into balls.
Dipping the dough into egg whites will help the nuts adhere.
Just coat the top half and set on tray.
Use your thumb or end of a wooden spoon or other kitchen tool to create a depression in the cookie.
Refrigerate for 30 minutes and then into a preheated oven.
Remove from the oven and press down the center of the cookie again and fill with jam. Put back into the oven to finish baking.
Hope you enjoy these rustic Thumbprint Cookies!
Take good care,
More recipes you may like:
- Luscious Lemon Cookies
- Spicy Chai Molasses Cookies
- Chewy Triple Ginger Cookies
- Rustic Pear Galette with Walnut Crust
- Chai-Spiced Pecan Torte
- Perfect Shortbread Cookies
Thumbprint Cookies with Walnuts and Apricot jam
- Prep Time: 50
- Cook Time: 25
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: 28 cookies 1x
- Category: desserts, cookies,
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Description
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 335 degrees.
- Grinds nuts in food processor.
- Remove from processor and set aside 1/2 cup to add to batter later and the rest in a bowl for coating the cookie.
- Add rye flour, AP flour, cardamom, salt, and sugar into the food processor. Pulse a few times to mix.
- Add butter, pulse to cut the butter into the flour mixture.
- Add in 1/2 cup of the ground walnuts.
- Whisk together vanilla and egg yolk. Add and pulse in the processor until dough is combined.
- Roll dough into a log about 1-inch diameter, slice into 1/2 inch pieces and shape into balls.
- Whisk together egg whites with 1 tablespoon of water. Dip the top half of the dough ball into the egg whites and then into the ground nuts. Set nut side up on a baking tray.
- Press divots into the cookie ball with your thumb. Place the tray in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Bake at 335 for 15 minutes. Remove from oven, you may need to lightly press into divot again. Fill with apricot jam.
- Bake for 10 minutes more.
Best eaten in 2 days.
Notes
Freeze the unbaked dough balls up to 3 months. Or freeze the baked cookie up to a month in a sealed container.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 162
- Sugar: 6.3 g
- Sodium: 50.2 mg
- Fat: 11.1 g
- Saturated Fat: 4.6 g
- Carbohydrates: 14.4 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Protein: 2.4 g
- Cholesterol: 30.7 mg
I doubled the recipe and that was a big mistake. The cookies collapsed I think because they had too much butter? In any case they were still delicious, I may just end up using them for topping on vanilla ice cream.
Sorry about that. I am noticing that the recipe multiplier in grams is not doubling, I think that could have been the issue? Will work on this.
I fill these with apricot jam, pear preserves, plum butter and apple butter. They are so lovely and fragrant!
Sounds so yummy! Glad you are enjoying.
I wish I could post a picture of the mess I just made, I can’t stop giggling. 😂 Tried to use GF flour and accidentally used 2 whole eggs in the dough and they are…pancakes. I’m leaning into it and adding walnuts and sea salt on top and I will share them with my least judgmental friends! Flavor is fantastic even as is, so I will attempt again another day!
I so appreciate your humor and resilience! I have been there many many times. Usually I just rename the creation- maybe some good crumbles for ice cream? Thanks for the positive rating!
I used blackcurrant jam because that’s what I have and it was delish! I also subbed used flaxseeds to make flaxseed eggs and it turned out nice!
Yum! sounds nice!
These Thumbprint beauties are delicious. Plenty sweet, and only 1/2 cup sugar for the whole recipe ( except for the Jam ) I used fruit sweetened apricot preserves. All organic ingredients.
I also made two changes to the recipe :
*Instead of Rye flour, I used Whole Wheat flour, (could not find my rye flour).
*I only used One Teaspoon ground Cardamom, (not two).
They were very good. I keep my Cardamom in the freezer, very expensive to waste
Glad you liked these Mary! That is a great idea to keep the cardamom in the freezer! I find that it varies so much in freshness when buying it ground. I am going to do that, grind it fresh and keep it in the freezer!
Great flavor. I love the addition of walnuts, cardamom and rye flour.
My dough was really crumbly, so I added some chilled water as mentioned in other comments and that seemed to help. Will make again!
Sylvia has no recipes that disappoint! 👏🏼
These were fantastic! The cardamom really comes through without overpowering. The cookies came together easily, and the sandiness of the rye flour adds an extra layer of flavor and texture. We made them as a component of cookie plates for family and friends and this has been the most requested recipe by the recipients!
Oh I love hearing this! Thanks Julie!
Delicious and so fun to make!
yay!🥰
Delicious! This is the perfect recipe to make for the holidays. The sweet, salty, and tangy flavor mash together perfectly. Another winner 🙂
THEY WERE DELICIOUS…..WE LOVED THEM…..SO GOOD, I GAVE THEM AS CHRISTMAS GIFTS
Perfect! So great to hear.
Is there a way to substitute the eggs and make this recipe vegan?
Not having done this….you could try flax eggs and coconut oil for the butter?? Let us know how they turn out!
Hi Sylvia, I am allergic to walnuts. Can I use pecans or almonds or do you have a suggestion for the best substitute for the nuts? Just FYI, I have homemade Plum Jam that I was going to use instead of Apricot.
Thanks, Ginger
All of your ideas sound great, and should work fine!
Making this now & forming the cookies is a disaster.I doubled my recipe but the dough is so dry & crumbly it is almost impossible to form.I ended up adding a few tablespoons of chilled water.The recipe sounds so good,hope they turn out.
Shoot. Did you weigh or measure the flour?
I weighed the flour & followed the recipe exactly.The end result was delicious .I absolutely love all your other recipes I have tried.
Because I doubled the recipe I had to mix it by hand with a pastry blender would that make a difference?
awww…. sorry! sounds like a frustrating process! I do think the food processor helps the dough adhere. If you decide to try again I would do 1 batch at a time.
Delicious cookie recipe. I substituted walnuts for almonds because I’m allergic to walnuts, and I didn’t have rye flour so used whole wheat flour. They turned out great!
So glad you liked them!
These were divine! I didn’t have rye flour on hand so I used buckwheat flour and they were delicious. Like buckwheat shortbread with jam. Can’t wait to try them with rye flour to see the difference!
Buckwheat flour is perfect! So glad you adapted and enjoyed!
You can use whole wheat pastry flour or all white in place of the rye. I do recommend weighing the flour as rye flour is more dense, which just means you may need a little more if you use all white flour.
Instead of cardamom, a teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon of ginger would be nice!
Let us know what you come up with!
Hi! I just made these yesterday and they are a hit!
I just wanted to point out that in the actual instructions for making the recipe the 1/2 cup of sugar seems that have been forgotten… I’m assuming it would be added into the food processor at step 4.
Thank you for the recipe!
Opps! Yes, that is exactly where the sugar goes in 😊 Thanks for letting us know! We adjusted the instructions.
So glad you liked them!
Hi Sylvia,
I really want to make these cookies, but I am not a fan of cardamom and I don’t have rye flour. Would you be able to suggest any substitutes for these two ingredients?
Thank you,
You can use whole wheat pastry flour or all white in place of the rye. I do recommend weighing the flour as rye flour is more dense, which just means you may need a little more if you use all white flour.
Instead of cardamom, a teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon of ginger would be nice!
Let us know what you come up with!