This Week’s Recipe: Thumbprint Cookies

Inspiration: Recently, I found a vintage Betty Croker Cookbook at an estate sale and picked up a jar of lingonberry preserves from a German deli a few weeks later. Combine these separate events with a lemon themed going away party — you get thumbprint cookies.

Now, it’s been a hot minute since I made traditional thumbprint cookies. Yet, I still couldn’t keep myself from changing the recipe a bit, mainly because I cannot come into contact with nuts without blowing up. So I totally skipped the portion of the recipe where you whip an egg white, dip the dough in it, and then roll the dough ball in nuts.

Thereby illustrating what I love about Betty Crocker Picture Cook Books — the recipes inside are generally so basic it allows you to play with them and still produce edible bakes….about 95% of the time.

I also substituted lemon extract for vanilla and adding lemon zest to the dough. Not a huge change, I admit, but I felt confident in making them!

Even better, they turned out great! Lingonberry and lemon go really well together!

Christie: I can see Miss Marple baking these for an under-the-weather friend since you can slip some extra vitamin C into the mix to help them recover faster! Plus, taking baked goods to a neighbor is a wonderful way to get invited inside, where one can either exchange local news (aka gossip) or conduct a gentle interrogation over tea and biscuits!