Thumbprint cookies! There is an awesome bakery here, but in South Arlington, called “Paris Bakery”, that makes very awesome thumbprint style cookies. Even though they’re only fifty cent a piece (sixty cent a piece, if you get the double cookie with the filling), they’re pretty addictive, and a dozen of them equals six bucks! So I decided to learn how to make them on my own. I combined two recipes: a thumbprint cookie from allrecipes.com, and a chocolate frosting recipe from cooks.com. That said: here we go!
For the cookies:
1/4 c. butter, room temperature
1/2 c sugar
pinch salt
1 tsp. vanilla
3 tbsp. milk
1/2 c cornstarch
1.25 c. all-purpose flour (my all-purpose flour has whole wheat flour in it, but it’s cool if yours doesn’t!)
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F; line a baking sheet with parchment paper. (I did this, but I think next time I’ll use foil, like I usually do. The wax paper that I do makes cookies stick to it…)
- Cream together butter, sugar, and salt. Beat in vanilla, milk, and cornstarch; stir in flour until combined.
- Roll dough into 1 inch balls and roll in course sugar, if desired (I didn’t). Place on the baking sheet and make a shallow indentation with your thumb.
- Bake for 12-13 minutes, until just brown.
- Cool on wire rack.
Supposedly, this yields 2 dozen cookies. I’ve made the first dozen, but am allowing the dough to chill in our fridge until I’m ready to make the rest, lest they all get eaten right away. Now onto the frosting! I only used half the recipe for the chocolate frosting and, because our coffee maker is broken right now, I don’t have any available. I will be using it next time though!
For the Chocolate Frosting:
6 tbsp. cocoa
6 tbsp. butter
1 tsp. vanilla
3 c. confectioners sugar
6 tbsp. butter
1 tsp. vanilla
3 c. confectioners sugar
You want to just combine the ingredients for the frosting, but make sure to do it with a flat spoon or something, and start out pretty slow; the confectioner’s sugar will try to get everywhere otherwise, and the butter needs to combine with the dry ingredients very well in order to accomplish the frosting. That said, I think they turned out pretty great! I might add a bit more milk next time to the cookie recipe, as the dough was still a bit crumbly. These aren’t the exact texture as the cookies from the bakery, either, but I did enjoy them. I’ll probably start making them for friends and neighbors as gifts.
Also, I’m pretty sure that the supplies for two dozen of these darlings costs me wayyy less than the six they cost at the store. Still; I love Paris Bakery, and I’ll still shop there and support a nice local bakery.