Valentine’s Day Thumbprint Cookies

Name: Valentine's Day Thumbprint Cookies
Prep time: 45 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 55 min
Ingredients: 1/4 cup butter, softened; 1/4 cup shortening or coconut oil; 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed; 1 egg yolk; 1/2 tsp. vanilla; 1 cup AP, flour; 1/4 tsp. salt; 5 oz. colored nonpareils; 2 cups powdered sugar, sifted; 2 tbls milk; 1 tbls. white corn syrup; drops red and pink food coloring gel

January 19, 2019 By Jere Cassidy 40 Comments

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There’s a little bakery in Richmond, Indiana called Joy Ann’s Cake Shop, it’s been there for years. I actually use to work around the corner from this bakery, which was dangerous; I went there a lot. I couldn’t resist their pecan danish; I still drool when I think about them. Those danish became an obsession with me, and no matter how many times I tried to make them, nothing was even close to the sweet, springy dough, and the sweet glaze on top. The last time I was in Richmond I went to Joy Ann’s just for a danish and they didn’t make any that day, I thought I might burst into tears. For crying out loud didn’t they know I was in town and needed a danish?

Thumbprint Cookies

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Joy Ann’s makes other great bakery treats like creme horns, fruit bars, cakes, donuts, cupcakes, fun-shaped cookies and these amazing little Thumbprint Cookies filled with pastel-colored icing. Another one of my addictions. So since I couldn’t make those darn danish I knew I could make the thumbprints.

What’s great about these cookies is they are so easy to make and fill. Roll them in nuts, sugar, sprinkles or just leave them plain. You can go wild on the fillings; chocolate, caramel, marshmallow, jams, fruit, and my favorite, a simple powdered sugar icing.

Since Valentine’s Day is right around the corner I thought making these cookies with red, pink and white sprinkles and colorful icing sounded like the perfect way to celebrate this day with something really colorful.

Here is your Thumbprint Cookie ingredient list –

Butter
Shortening
Brown Sugar
Egg
Vanilla
Flour
Salt
Colored nonpareils

How to Make Thumbprint Cookies

These sweet little cookies are super easy to make. Just mix the batter in a bowl with a wooden spoon and the best part is you don’t need to refrigerate the dough. Just mix, roll and bake.

The dough is so easy to work with, just scoop with a teaspoon and make 1″ balls, then roll in the sprinkles.

You have to make little indents in the cookie balls to hold the icing later. I do this by pressing the back of a teaspoon into the dough ball, or your thumb will work great too.

These cookies are ready to bake and when you pull them out of the oven you may have to use the teaspoon again to make the indents deeper.

Who can resist colorful sprinkles?

While the cookies are cooling you can make the icing. I like using three colors red, white and pink, but using just one color will make these cookies just as pretty.

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