Thumbprint Cookies with Icing

Thumbprint cookies are perfect for the holiday season. One of our favorite cookies for Christmas, this easy recipe is great for kids to help make and decorate.

this recipe

Christmas cookie season is always so much fun at our house. My kids love baking and decorating cookies, and could sit for hours with bowls of sweet icing and brightly colored sprinkles. Some of the icing might even make it onto a cookie… 🙂

These classic thumbprint cookies are one of my favorite cookie recipes for the holiday season. They have a similar flavor to iced sugar cookies, but are even easier to make and decorate. Just drizzle icing into the center of each cookie and sprinkle with your favorite sprinkles. These cookies are great for Christmas with red and green sprinkles, or make them for Valentine’s Day with red and pink! We used white icing, but if you want even more color, you can add food coloring for a rainbow of cookie decorating options.

For other versatile and simple holiday desserts to make with your kids, check out my M&M Rice Krispie treats.

You Will Love This

• These thumbprints are perfect bite-sized cookies for your cookie exchange or holiday dessert table.
• These tender cookies are classic Christmas cookies, but are great any time of year. Decorate them however you want to suit your occasion!
• Thumbprint cookies are perfect for customizing to your family’s taste. Try adjusting the simple icing recipe below to make fun green or red icing for your kids to use in decorating. Or make peppermint, lemon or chocolate icing for a completely different flavor in your cookie!

Ingredients

For this easy iced thumbprint cookies recipe you will need the following ingredients (exact measurements are in the recipe card below).

For the cookies:

• Softened butter: I like to use unsalted butter when making cookies because you can control the salt content of your baked goods better that way, yielding more consistent results. If you only have salted butter in the house though, don’t let that stop you from making these cookies. Just add a little bit less salt to the recipe.
• White granulated sugar
• Egg yolk: This recipe calls for one egg yolk. You can save the egg white and add it to your scrambled eggs for breakfast!
• Vanilla extract
• Almond extract: Almond extract gives these cookies a delicious little boost of flavor. Sugar cookies can be made without almond extract, but they just don’t taste as good. Almond extract is the secret ingredient!
• All purpose flour
• Cornstarch: Cornstarch helps keep these cookies to be soft and tender, and also helps to prevent them from spreading too much.
• Salt

For the icing:

• Powdered sugar (confectioner’s sugar)
• Vanilla extract
• Half and half: You could substitute milk or heavy cream.
• Optional: Add a few drops of food coloring to your icing if you want brightly colored icing for your cookies.
• Sprinkles!! Use your favorite sprinkles to decorate your cookies for any occasion.

Instructions

Making the Cookies

Step One: Add the softened butter and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the whisk attachment, cream the butter and sugar together for about 1-2 minutes. Add the egg yolk, vanilla extract and almond extract and whisk for another minute.

Note: A hand mixer also works perfectly for this recipe if you don’t have a stand mixer!

Step Two: Mix the dry ingredients (flour, cornstarch and salt) together in a large mixing bowl. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and beat until just combined. The mixture will be crumbly.

Step Three: Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using clean hands, scoop dough out of the mixing bowl and roll it into small balls (approximately 1 inch). Place the dough balls on the cookie sheet.

TIP: Use a small cookie scoop if you have one to scoop up the dough for each cookie. This will help ensure they stay uniform in size.

Step Four: Use the back of a measuring spoon or your thumb to press an indent into the center of each cookie. Make sure not to press too hard, you do not want to press through to the baking sheet and make a hole. If your cookies crack, just use your fingers to pinch and smooth the dough back together.

Step Five: Place the cookies and cookie sheet in the freezer for 30 minutes. This is a crucial step! Chilling the dough helps to keep the cookies from spreading too much. If you fail to chill the cookies, they could spread so much that there is no indent left for your icing.

Step Six: While the cookies are chilling, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. When the oven is preheated and the cookies are fully chilled, bake the cookies for approximately 12 minutes. The cookies should have barely any color on top, and should be a light golden brown on the bottom. Remove the baked cookies to a cooling rack and allow them to cool for 10-15 minutes before icing.

Making the Icing and Decorating

Step Seven: Add the powdered sugar, vanilla and half and half to a small mixing bowl, and stir to combine. The icing should be smooth and easy to drizzle off a spoon.

Step Eight: Use a spoon to drizzle icing into the middle of each cookie. Add your favorite sprinkles or decorations immediately, before the icing sets. Enjoy!!

TIP: For more precision with your icing, you can make a piping bag by putting the icing in a ziploc bag and making a small cut at one corner to squeeze the icing through.