We’re officially one week into December, which means I’m allowed to inundate you with holiday cookie content. HOORAY! Don’t hate, you know you love cookies. Thumbprint cookies were always around at the holidays growing up, and I’ve taken my great grandmother’s basic dough recipe and added a few things to make them my own. My peppermint chocolate and jammy rosemary versions are super festive, and just the thing for your holiday table or cookie swaps.

The basic dough is a buttery, delicate, melt in your mouth, blank canvas for any filling or mix in you can think of. These are just two of my suggestions for flavorings, so really make these cookies your own! Nuts, crystallized ginger, citrus zest, matcha, you name it- would be great add ins. The recipe makes a very large batch of dough (almost 7 dozen cookies!) that you can divide and make two different flavors. A twofer, if you will.

The peppermint chocolate thumbprints are a slight adaptation to my great grandmother’s recipe, which uses mini chocolate chips and milk chocolate Hershey’s Kisses in the center. I’ve kept the mini chocolate chips and replaced the milk chocolate kisses with candy cane ones, and they are so colorful and minty, I almost love them more than the original.

The jammy rosemary thumbprints are, hands down, my favorite adaptation. The rosemary is fragrant but not so much that you feel like you’re chewing on a tree in the woods, and the sweetness of the cherry jam compliments the rosemary so nicely! The beauty of this recipe is that you can use any flavor of fruit preserves you like. Apricot, fig, or citrus preserves would also be wonderful.

This is pretty much a choose your own adventure recipe, but I hope you try my two versions-they are sure to be a hit this holiday season.

Thumbprint Cookies Two Ways

Ingredients:

Dough

2 C unsalted butter

1 C sugar

3 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

4 1/2 C all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

Peppermint Chocolate Thumbprints

1/2 dough recipe

1/2 C mini chocolate chips

candy cane Hershey’s Kisses

Jammy Rosemary Thumbrints

1/2 dough recipe

3 tsp rosemary, finely chopped

fruit preserves (I used cherry, but apricot, fig, or citrus flavors would be delicious)

In a stand mixer or with a handheld mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. I use cold butter straight from the fridge, which I know is usually a baking no-no, but it works perfectly and means you don’t have to wait for your butter to come to room temperature, which also means cookies in your belly sooner.

Add eggs, one at a time, making sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix the egg in completely before adding the next. By the time you’ve mixed in your third egg, the mixture may start to look like cottage cheese, and you’ll think you’ve done something wrong. Don’t worry! The dough will come together in the end. Add in the vanilla and mix to combine.

Whisk together the flour and baking powder in a bowl. Add flour to the wet ingredients and mix just until the flour has been completely incorporated.

Divide the dough in half. Stir in the mini chocolate chips into half the dough, and the rosemary into the other half. Cover each dough and let chill in the refrigerator for 30+ minutes.

Once the dough has been chilled, roll into 1” balls and space 2” apart on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Press down the dough with your thumb, creating a well in the center of the cookie.

If you are making the peppermint chocolate thumbprints, bake at 350 degrees for 11-14 minutes, or until the edges and bottoms of the cookies have just turned a pale golden brown. Place a candy cane Hershey’s Kiss in the center of each cookie and gently transfer to a cooling rack.

If you are making the jammy rosemary thumbprints, fill each cookie with 1/4 tsp of the jam of your choosing, then bake at 350 degrees for 11-14 minutes. Transfer cookies to a cooling rack.