The Best Iced Thumbprint Cookies Recipe (with pictures)
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Iced Thumbprint Cookies are easy to make, taste great and are the perfect addition to the dessert table at any celebration. These old fashioned cookies are the best.
Iced Thumbprint Cookie Recipe
These delicate cookies are our favorite special occasion treats from the local bakery. When the bakery couldn’t fill an order for her son’s baptism, Barbara decided to tackle these Thumbprint Cookies with Icing herself. And guess what? They were better than the bakery. I ate at least a dozen, so I feel confident saying this.
She turned to a cookbook that is a go-to reference for some of our family’s favorite cookie recipes – the 1971 version of Homemade Cookies by Farm Journal Editors.
Iced Thumbprint Cookies Ingredients
- Unsalted Butter, softened
- Confectioners sugar (also known as powdered sugar)
- Salt
- Vanilla Extract
- Flour
- Pecans or walnuts
- Milk or Cream
- Food Coloring of your choice
How to Make Thumbprint Cookies with Icing
Step By Step Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat butter, confectioner’s sugar, salt and vanilla until creamy and fluffy with an electric mixer or stand mixer.
- Add sifted flour to butter mixture but don’t over mix. Stir in pecans.
- Chill cookie dough in the refrigerator for at least an hour.
- Shaped chilled dough into small balls and place on cookie sheet. Make a small thumbprint indention on top of each cookie.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes until lightly browned and set. Cool completely on a wire rack.
Full recipe and ingredient list for shortbread thumbprint cookies can be found at the bottom of the page.
Icing for Best Thumbprint Cookie Recipe Ever
- Mix confectioners sugar, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and 1 Tablespoon of milk or cream at a time (approximately 3-4 Tablespoons total) until icing is smooth.
- Add food coloring to desired color.
- Pour or spoon into the thumbprint of each pecan shortbread cookie.
- Let set before eating.
Storage Instructions
Let cookies cool and icing harden completely. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. Cookies can be stored in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Color Variations
These shortbread thumbprint cookies with icing are completely customizable depending on the occasion. Use food coloring to create your desired color or make a batch and top with multiple colors.
- Assorted Red and Green – Christmas
- Orange – Halloween
- Purple and Pink- Easter
- Red, White and Blue – Independence Day
- Dark Orange or Yellow – Thanksgiving
- Blue – Baptism or First Communion
- School Colors – Graduation
Flavor Variations
Swap the classic icing filling for jam instead. Apricot, strawberry, or raspberry jam are all tasty flavors. Or, fill it with lemon curd for a fun spin.
Make Ahead Dough for Thumbprint Cookies
Another great thing about these pecan thumbprint cookies with icing is that you can make this dough several days ahead of time. Just pull out of the fridge when ready to bake. The dough may be a bit hard, just let it sit at room temperature for a few minutes to loosen up.
If the dough begins to crack as you press your thumbprint in, roll the dough ball for a few seconds between your hands to loosen it up.
How do I keep my thumbprint cookies from cracking?
Roll the dough into a smooth, round ball (whatever size you want depending on how big or small). If the dough seems too hard or too touch, roll it a bit longer to soften up the dough.
Do you put icing on cookies before or after baking?
Be sure to let the shortbread thumbprint cookies cool completely before adding the icing.
Can you freeze thumbprint cookies?
Yes! Bake the thumbprint cookies with nuts according to the directions, and let cool completely. Put them in a freezer-safe container or airtight bag. When you are ready to eat them, pull them from the freezer and thaw. Once defrosted, prepare the icing as directed and serve.
Recipe FAQs
- Before measuring confectioners sugar and flour, sift them onto a piece of waxed paper or a plate. Then measure accordingly.
- Start with softened butter at room temperature.
- Confectioners sugar is the same as powdered sugar.
- Substitute walnuts for pecans, if desired in these easy thumbprint cookies with icing.
- If you refrigerate the dough for more than 1 hour, you may have to roll the dough a little longer in your hands to get a nice round circle. You can set the dough out for a bit at room temperature to warm it up before rolling.
- Use a silicone baking mat, if desired.
- Be sure your thumbprint cookies with nuts are cooled completely before icing.
- If you want to bake these ahead and freeze, do so before icing. Wait to decorate with icing once they are defrosted and ready to be served.
- While preparing the icing for these shortbread thumbprint cookies, start with 1 tbsp of milk (or cream) and work your way up to 3 – 4 tablespoons. Add just enough to make a spoonable icing, not too runny and not too thick.
- If you get your icing too runny, add more powdered sugar!
Holiday Cookie Recipes
Cookies are our favorite holiday treat to make to take to family gatherings and parties with friends. They also make wonderful homemade gifts. Here are some of our favorite cookie recipes to make during the holidays…and all year round.
Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies
Chocolate Chip Molasses Cookies
Linking up to Weekend Potluck!
Iced Thumbprint Cookies
Ingredients
Cookies
- 1/2 cup confectioners sugar sifted before measuring
- 1 cup butter softened
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla
- 2 cups all-purpose flour sifted before measuring
- 1 cup pecans finely chopped
Icing
- 2 cups confectioners sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 4 Tablespoons Milk or cream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Sift confectioners sugar onto a piece of parchment paper; then measure according to recipe.
- Beat butter, confectioner’s sugar, salt and vanilla until creamy and fluffy.
- Mix in flour that has been sifted in the same manner as confectioners sugar; do not over-mix.
- Stir in pecans.
- Chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
- Shape the chilled dough into small balls and place 3 inches apart on ungreased baking sheet.
- Use the tip of your thumb to make a thumbprint in the center of the cookie.
- Bake 12-15 minutes until lightly browned and set; let cool completely.
Shortbread Icing Recipe
- For icing, mix 2 cups confectioners sugar, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and 1 Tablespoon of milk or cream at a time (approximately 3-4 Tablespoons total) until icing is smooth.
- Add food coloring for desired color.
- Let cookies cool completely. Pour or spoon icing into each thumbprint. Let set before eating.
Video
Notes
- The number of cookies these make depends on how large you roll your balls of dough. We usually make ours smaller than a normal cookie – probably just under an inch or so.
- Before measuring confectioners sugar and flour, sift them onto a piece of waxed paper or a plate. Then measure accordingly.
- Start with softened butter at room temperature.
- Confectioners sugar is the same as powdered sugar.
- Substitute walnuts for pecans, if desired in these easy thumbprint cookies with icing.
- If you refrigerate more than 1 hour, you may have to roll the dough a little longer in your hands to get a nice round circle.
- Be sure your thumbprint cookies with nuts are cooled completely before icing.
- If you want to bake these ahead and freeze, do so before icing. Wait to decorate with icing once they are defrosted and ready to be served.
- While preparing the icing for these shortbread thumbprint cookies, start with 1 tablespoon of milk (or cream) and work your way up to 3 – 4 tablespoons. Add just enough to make a spoonable icing, not too runny and not too thick.
- If you get your icing too runny, add more powdered sugar!
- Love shortbread? Try our Dainty Logs—a shortbread cookie with chocolate chips.
- Please note that carb counts, calorie counts and nutritional information can vary depending on ingredients used. The nutritional information below is auto-calculated and should NOT be used for specific dietary needs.
Nutrition
Linking up to Weekend Potluck. Check out some amazing recipes here.
I’d love a dozen of these! Do you deliver? 🙂
Wouldn’t that be great? We need an UberEats delivery service for recipes we find online!
My kids would totally eat these up!
Such a wonderful Easter treat, and the good thing is that these can be made a head of time!
These are so perfect for Easter!
I enjoy them with mint tea. a very good combination <3
Trying them now!
Yay! Hope you enjoy them as much as we do!
How many does this recipe make?
We can get 60 cookies out of this recipe but it all depends on how big you make them!
Do you use all purpose or self rising flour? Thank you
All-purpose flour!
Do you need to use pecans?
No, you can use any nut you like. We haven’t tried it without the nuts but we imagine it would work without any!
A recipe I have You need 1 cup of sugar in the mix. Did you forget the sugar in the ingredients list??
Ours just uses 1/2 cup of confectioners (powdered) sugar which is the first ingredient in the list. Hope that helps.
You failed to say when the powdered sugar goes in…I assume at the beginning?
We didn’t note confectioners/powdered sugar in the directions (just said sugar). Thanks for the question, we clarified. It gets beaten in with eggs, etc.
I would like to make these for an upcoming wedding. Can the iced cookies be frozen? If so, what is the best way to thaw them? Thank you.
They can be frozen – we do it often! We just take them out of the freezer and let them thaw at room temperature.
A bakery I worked at sold these! We called them tea fills. I moved to a new state and miss them so much lol. Do you use salted or unsalted butter?
Honestly, we usually use whatever type of butter we have on hand but unsalted is usually the way to go in baking since there’s salt in the cookies too! You won’t ruin them if you do use salted butter! Thanks for the comment!
What kind of butter do you use?
We usually use whatever type of butter we have on hand, if we are honest, but unsalted is recommended when baking since there’s salt in the cookies too!
YEAH!!! I lost my recipe and this is it!! Thank you! It killed me to pay anywhere from 79 cents to $1.25 PER COOKIE at the bakeries here!
Yay. so glad it’s THE recipe!
what type of flour all purpose or self rising
All purpose flour.
Is this cookie ( WITHOUT the ICING ) a sweet cookie or just barely sweet? I mean since you would get sweetness from the icing. The thumbprint cookies we used to get at our bakery many years ago, the cookie itself was hardly sweet at all and then it was filled with a fudge frosting. That’s what I would like to duplicate.
Any advice you can give me will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
Melinda – They aren’t overly sweet. They have a 1/2 cup powdered sugar and that’s all. They are on the dry side which is what the frosting is important!
Help! Mine came out flat like a sugar cookie😩 I refrigerated the dough for an hour Not sure what went wrong
Hmmm, some things to consider: did you use butter or margarine? We recommend butter, softened but not totally soft (set it out for 20-30 minutes); cream butter and confectioners sugar for 2-3 minutes (don’t over beat); sift your flour and then measure. Sounds like you refrigerated long enough.
I just came across this recipe last week. I made them for a second time tonight! These cookies taste like the ones I buy from Plehn’s Bakery in Louisville, Kentucky.
So glad you enjoyed them! They are a favorite of ours too.
Thanks For This RECIPE Idea
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