Italian Thumbprint Cookie Recipe

Photos by Kiley Melicker

Buttery cookies get rolled in nuts, dimpled, then filled with icing. Get creative with the icing flavor, or keep it simple! However, I definitely recommend making the icing colorful to please the Italian grandmother that lives inside of each and everyone of us.

This recipe came to me via my friend Joanna, who has a collection of recipes from her Italian-American matriarchy: her grandmother Lucy, and her best friend Minnie.

Italian Thumbprint Cookies

Yield: 2 dozen cookies
The trick to these cookies is dimpling them half-way through their bake. Pull them out of the oven, and work quickly, thumbs a-blazing. 
The recipe calls for butter and shortening, which is pretty classic for the era of this recipe. It’s fine to substitute all butter, though you might lose a bit of definition. 
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Ingredients
  

  • 1/4 cup shortening
  • 1/4 cup soft butter (1/2 stick, 2 ounces)
  • 1/4 cup light brown sugar
  • 1 egg, separated
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 cup coarsely ground or finely chopped nuts (walnuts work very well)

For icing:

  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 1-2 T milk or water
  • Flavoring of your choice: Vanilla extract, almond extract, or lemon juice (optional)
  • Food coloring (optional)

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 325. Line baking sheet with parchment. 
  • Cream together shortening, butter & brown sugar.
  • Add in egg yolk and vanilla. Reserve egg white.
  • Add flour and salt to bowl, mix thoroughly.
  • Roll into small balls, slightly under 1″. Dip balls in egg white, then roll around in nuts.
  • Place on to prepared baking sheet, leaving about an inch between each cookie.
  • Bake 5 minutes, then pull cookies out of oven. Working quickly, use your thumb to dimple the top of each cookie. Return cookies to oven, and bake another 8 minutes.
  • Pull cookies out of oven, let rest on sheet pan a few minutes, then allow to cool completely on wire rack.

For icing:

  • Whisk out an lumps in your powdered sugar, then slowly drizzle in milk or water until you get an icing that easy to drizzle. Add whatever flavoring and colors you like.
  • Using a spoon or a piping bag, drizzle into dimples of cookies. Let icing set, then enjoy!