Christmas Thumbprint Cookies
These delicious buttery pecan cookies are a staple at Christmastime at our house! You can be creative with your icing flavors and colors and change the taste of them every time you make them! Christmas Thumbprint Cookies turn out perfect every time!
Equipment
- Stand Mixer
Ingredients
For Cookies
- ½ cup powdered sugar (Confectioner's Sugar)
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup chopped pecans
For Icing
- 1 Tablespoon milk
- ½ cup powdered sugar (Confectioner's Sugar)
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon flavoring extract Almond, Vanilla, Orange, Maple, etc
- ⅛ teaspoon food coloring adjust to achieve desired shade of icing
Instructions
For the Cookies
- In a stand mixer bowl, cream together sugar, butter, salt and vanilla until smooth.
- Add in flour and chopped pecans and run the mixer until combined well.
- Cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap and let it cool in the fridge for at least one hour.
- Once properly chilled, preheat oven to 350*.
- Shape the dough into small balls.
- Press thumb (or a wooden spoon handle) into the middle of the dough ball to make an indention about 3/4 of the way through the cookie.
- Place on a parchment-lined cookie sheet about an inch apart.
- Bake for 15 minutes until golden brown on top and bottom.
- Cool completely.
For the Icing:
- Put confectioner's sugar in a bowl.
- Add milk to confectioner's sugar and stir with a whisk making sure there are no lumps.
- Add flavor extract to your taste (I use a few drops of almond extract as my favorite)
- Add food coloring to achieve the shade of icing you want. At Christmas I use red and green!
- If your icing is too runny at this point, add a little more confectioner's sugar. If too think, a few drops more of milk. (It should pour easily into a zip lock bag but not so easily that it's going to run off the cookies)
- Pour the icing into a small zip lock bag.
- Cut a tiny part of the bottom tip of the bag off and pipe the icing into the cookie thumbprint holes.
- Let cookies stand on baking rack for several hours for icing to harden, then store in an airtight container.
Notes
For the cookie icing, you can easily scale up the recipe. Or if you find it too runny, add a little more confectioner's sugar. If you find it not runny enough, add a smidge more milk. But a little milk goes a LONG way. Plus factor in you are adding a few more drops of liquid with the flavor and the food coloring too. Make sure to add both the flavor and color before you make any final adjustments to the consistency of the icing.
Nutrition
Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 127kcal | Carbohydrates: 11g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 16mg | Sodium: 30mg | Potassium: 27mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 192IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 6mg | Iron: 1mg
Servings: 30 cookies
Calories: 127kcal
Cost: $15