Best Almond Shortbread Thumbprint Cookies Recipes

RASPBERRY ALMOND SHORTBREAD THUMBPRINT COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl whisk together flour and salt, set aside.
• In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, blend together butter and sugar until combined (it will take a minute or two since the butter is cold. If you don't have a paddle attachment that constantly scrapes bowl, then occasionally stop mixer and scrape down sides and bottom of bowl). Mix in almond extract then add in flour blend until mixture comes together (it will take a bit of mixing since the butter is cold, so be patient, it will seem really dry at first).
• Shape dough into 1-inch balls, about 1 Tbsp each, and place 2-inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Make a small indentation with thumb or forefinger in each cookie (large enough to fit 1/4 - 1/2 tsp of jam). Fill each with 1/4 - 1/2 tsp jam. Chill in refrigerator 20 minutes (or freezer for 10 minutes). Bake in preheated oven 14 - 18 minutes.
• Cool several minutes on baking sheet then transfer to a wire rack to cool (at this point you can add a little more jam if you'd like to, it just won't be set like the other is). Drizzle cookies with glaze when when cool. Store cookies in an airtight container.
• For the glaze:
• Whisk all glaze ingredients together in a small mixing bowl, adding enough water to reach desired consistency. Pour or spoon mixture into a sandwich size resealable bag, cut a small tip from one corner and drizzle over cookies.
• Recipe source: adapted from both Land O Lakes and MarcieJ's review on allrecipes.com

ALMOND SHORTBREAD THUMBPRINT COOKIES

Steps:

• 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together the butter, sugar, flour and almond extract. Chill the dough for 1 hour in the refrigerator. Roll the dough into 1" balls or use a 1" scoop to place them onto a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet. Press down on the top of each cookie and use your thumb to create a small indent. After all the indents are made, fill the indents with about 1/2 teaspoon of jam. Bake for approximately 10 minutes. Remove from the oven before the cookies are browned. Let cool on the trays for 1-2 minutes and then remove to a wire cooling rack. To make the glaze, add the almond extract to the powdered sugar and then slowly add the milk to this mixture. Stir constantly and stop adding milk when you reach the consistency of icing. It should drizzle off the tip of a spoon in a thin white stream. Not watery, but not thick either. When the cookies are completely cooled, drizzle the icing over the tops. These cookies freeze beautifully. When the icing has hardened, layer them into containers with wax paper between the layers. They will keep in the freezer for at least a month.