Years ago, I made a batch of double ginger cookies with powdered and candied in the dough. Then I immediately remade them as triple ginger, spiking them with a couple teaspoons of freshly grated ginger root. Then came the Mexican hot chocolate cookies barely warmed by a couple pinches of cayenne pepper. Then a couple more pinches. Made for a crowd, their fire had to be banked to match the platter of Christmas cookies they’d be joining. But a voice kept whispering: More.
The humble thumbprint cookie seems like a solid base on which to experiment. At times underappreciated, our jam-dotted girl can get lost among flashier peers like the powdered Linzer cookie, chocolate-dipped show-offs or dandified gingerbread men. But a tender, buttery cookie with a jewel of sweet fruit baked in its center is a classic that allows for customization and upgrading. Bespoke fig jam? A dab of balsamic in the strawberry preserves? The world is your jam pantry.
Thumbprint dough, too, is a blank canvas awaiting the spices, ground nuts and flavor extracts of your choosing. I can attest to the aforementioned fresh ginger (beaten into the sugar and butter) making a zingy match for apricot jam.
I imagine the Scoville-obsessed beat me to the hot thumbprint long ago with far more intense Scotch bonnet and ghost pepper fillings. At this very moment, someone is probably desperately dunking a flaming thumbprint into milk. (If that’s you, hit me up. Chopped chiles in the dough? Whole peppers in the middle? — I must know.) Certainly, some of you will taste the half-and-half mix of regular and spicy jam in the recipe below and want to tweak the ratio or add a dropper of whatever Vesuvian concoction is burning a hole in your condiment shelf.
Humboldt has a handful of nice options for jams with bite. Diane’s Sweet Heat offers habanero jams in blackberry, raspberry, peach and mango, each with a tangy edge of apple cider vinegar. Mad River Farms also has a Blackberry Pomegranate Chipotle jam if a little smokiness appeals. These can be on the runnier side and so need slightly longer in the oven, and benefit from pairing with thicker jam. I’m partial to strawberry jam with Diane’s Sweet Heat Blackberry Habanero, but the potential combinations are dizzying.
Perfectionists who crave symmetry may prefer to create a divot in the dough with the back of a ½ teaspoon measuring spoon or the rounded butt of a wooden spoon. Once baked, the hot jam centers will beckon you — resist their siren call until their tasty magma solidifies and won’t take off the precious outer layer of your tongue. Listen, there’s hot and there’s hot.
Spicy Thumbprint Cookies
Makes 3 ½ dozen.
Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 egg yolks
¼ teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup chile jam
¼ cup regular jam
Cream butter and sugar. Beat in vanilla, egg yolks and salt until thoroughly combined. Gradually beat in the flour until the dough is smooth. Chill for 40 minutes.
Heat the oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment.
Pinch off enough chilled dough to quickly roll it into a 1-inch ball using your palms. Place the dough balls on a parchment-lined cookie sheet 2 inches apart. Flatten each ball slightly and use your finger to make a depression in the center.
Mix the ¼ cup hot and ¼ cup regular jams together. Spoon about ½ teaspoon of jam mixture into each divot.
Bake the cookies for 10-13 minutes, or until the bottom edges barely begin to brown.
Let the cookies rest for 1 minute before transferring them to a rack to cool completely.
Jennifer Fumiko Cahill (she/her) is the arts and features editor at the Journal. Reach her at (707) 442-1400, extension 320, or jennifer@northcoastjournal.com. Follow her on Instagram @JFumikoCahill and on Bluesky @jfumikocahill.bsky.social.
This article appears in Sculpting Community.
