My Mama (Janice) is sharing a recipe for one of her favorite cookies with us today! Take it away, Mama! ~Christy

I’ve told you before that I am not the cookie lover like Christy is.  Well, these cookies are the exception.  I fell in love with these little gems when I was a child.  My mother occasionally hosted showers for expectant mothers or brides to be.  She always bought these cookies from a bakery and served them with punch.  They have the taste of a pecan sandy cookie with just a little extra oomph provided by the icing.  The icing was usually tinted a pastel when she bought them but I decided to use paste food coloring for a deeper color.

I had looked for this recipe for years.  It is kind of hard to find a recipe when you have no idea what the cookie is called or any of the ingredients.  Finally, my best friend Sue and I were at a bakery and I got excited because they had these cookies for sale.  I explained how I had always wanted the recipe but couldn’t find it.  Sue immediately said that they were called thumbprint cookies and she had the recipe.  Wow, was I impressed!  The next time Sue came to visit she brought these cookies.  She also brought them when she came to visit me after the wreck I was in that resulted in two broken legs (it always strikes Christy and I as odd that we have both had that happen).  That’s when I knew she understood how much I loved these cookies.

These cookies are very simple to make.  My main tip is to use a small scoop like I am showing so that they are all uniform in size.  I absolutely love scoops.  I have them in all sizes.  This scoop holds about a teaspoon and made 41 cookies.  The other tip is to dip your thumb in flour as you press your thumb into them.  Otherwise, they stick to your thumb and won’t leave an indention.  I’ve seen pictures where people used the bottom of a small measuring spoon to make the indention, but hey, they are called thumbprint cookies for a reason.

By the way, I thought I would take a little side track to brag on my husband and me.  The pecans for these cookies came from our two pecan trees.  We sit on the patio at night where he cracks them and I pick them out.  This year we got two 5 gallon buckets full of pecans.  So far, we have only picked out about 1/2 of one bucket and already have 4 quart bags of  shelled pecans.  I store them in the freezer for baking and use them all year.  If you live in the South, pecans are a must for baking during the holidays.

Try these little gems and let me know if your family loves them as much as mine.  I just bet they will!

Our lineup of ingredients  for the cookies include Sugar, All Purpose Flour, Salt, Pecans, Butter and Vanilla. 

The icing ingredients lineup is pictured lower down in our post.

Cream butter and sugar in mixer until fluffy.

Mix in flour, salt and vanilla until well combined.

Chop pecans in chopper until very finely chopped.

Mix chopped pecans into flour and butter mixture.

Drop cookie dough onto ungreased cookie sheets by teaspoonfuls. 

If you have a small scoop, it will cut your time in half.  If not, do it like I have every other year but this one and just measure out a teaspoonful and roll it into balls before putting it on the cookie sheet.

For authentic thumbprint cookies, dip your thumb into flour and press into the center of each cookie before baking. 

Here is a pan ready to go into the oven.

After they are baked until slightly browned, let them sit on the cookie sheet for a couple of minutes to cool and then remove them to cool completely before icing.

This is our lineup for the icing ingredients.  Confectioner’s sugar, almond extract, water, food coloring and sprinkles. 

The sprinkles are optional.  If you don’t like or have almond flavoring, feel free to replace it with vanilla.  In my opinion, the almond is divine in these cookies but Christy doesn’t like the taste of it so sometimes I switch it up.  You can also use whichever color you want for the cookies.  They are really pretty in pastel colors for baby or wedding showers.

Mix confectioners sugar, extract and enough water to make a nice consistency for icing. Divide icing into two parts for adding coloring.

Spread a small amount of icing on each cookie in the thumbprint indention. Then add sprinkles of your choice.

Aren’t they the cutest little things?  They are the most delicious cookies I have ever came across and are really quick and easy to make while looking very impressive.

 ”Sometimes me think, ‘What is friend?’.

And then me say ‘Friend is someone who share last cookie with you.’”

~Cookie Monster

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