These Raspberry and Pistachio Thumbprint Cookies are the perfect holiday cookies! The shortbread based cookie is deliciously buttery, rolled in salty pistachios and filled with tarte raspberry jam. Topped off with a beautiful drizzle of icing for a festive look!
Why you´ll LOVE this recipe
Besides the festive look and delicious flavors, this recipe is incredibly simple and does not require any electric mixer or food processor! The recipe can be divided into five simple steps:
1 – Mix the room temperatured butter with the dry ingredients until combined.
2 – Scoop and roll the dough into even sized balls.
3 – Brush with egg white wash and roll in crushed pistachios.
4 – Fill the center with raspberry jam.
5 – Bake the thumbprint cookies and drizzle with icing for a final touch!
The shortbread recipe can be adapted to many different variations. Some of my favorite versions are coconut and lime curd, hazelnut and nutella, blueberry and lemon or chocolate and sea salt. You could make one batch and divide the dough into 2 or more flavors. This would be perfect as a cookie holiday gift to give away (or to keep)!
Tips for making Thumbprint Cookies
Use room temperatured butter – This will make the dough forming process much quicker and easier. Cold butter would make the dough more crumbly, which is great for puff pastry or a flaky pie, but not for shortbread!
Do not over mix – Overmixing can lead to gluten development which will result in hard and tough cookies. The dough is ready to be rolled out once it can hold itself together into one ball with few crumbs.
Roll, Press, Repeat – Shortbread cookie dough dries out very quickly. While it might be tempting to roll out all the dough at once and then press in the center for the filling, that would lead to the cookie cracking and potentially breaking in the oven during the bake. Scoop, roll, brush with egg wash, roll in crushed pistachios, press the center and repeat.
Jam-packed – The thumbprint cookies will spread during the baking process, so it´s important to push the jam into the edges of the imprint to prevent gaps between the cookie and jam filling.
Raspberry & Pistachio Thumbprint Cookies
Ingredients
Shortbread thumbprint cookies
- 2 cups (4.5 dl) flour
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tbsp vanilla powder
- 1 cup (200 g) butter, room temperatured
Egg white wash
- 1 large egg white
- 1 tsp water
- 1 pinch salt
Toppings
- 2/3 cup (1.5 dl) salted pistachios, finely chopped
- 1/4 cup (0.6 dl) raspberry jam
- 1/2 cup (1 dl) powdered sugar
- 1-2 tsp milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 ℉ (175℃) and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, the sugar, the vanilla powder and the baking powder.
- Add the room temperatured butter in cubes and work the dough with your hands until just combined. The dough should be ready once it´s no longer crumbly and can hold itself together as one big ball.
- In a small bowl, whisk the egg whites with the water and the salt. Place a shallow dish with the finely chopped pistachios next to the bowl of egg whites.
- Scoop out the dough and roll between your palms into an even ball. Brush the ball with the egg white wash and roll into the chopped pistachios.
- Place on the baking tray and immediately press the center with your thumb or a round baking tool (such as a spoon or the back of a spatula). Repeat this for the remaining dough. The dough dries quickly so do not wait to press the center once all the cookies are rolled. Roll, press, repeat!
- Fill the center with the raspberry jam and bake for 15-20 minutes or until lightly golden.
- Let the cookies cool on the baking tray (they are too delicate to move while they are still hot).
- Mix togther the powdered sugar with the milk until the consistency is a slow-runny drizzle.
- To ice the cookies, either fill the icing in a ziplock bag and make a small cut in the corner for a more controlled pour or simply drizzle the cookies with a teaspoon.
- Let the icing set for 10 minutes and enjoy with a nice cup of tea!
Amazing looking cookies, can’t wait to try them out!