As always, the recipe is here

I love soft, chewy cookies but I hate decorating them. Mostly because it’s hard to erase mistakes on baked goods. I have a lot of awesome design ideas, but they mostly turn out as blobs. Delicious, sugary, blobs…

What I love about thumbprint cookies is that they are very colorful, fun, and easy to design. It takes just a little bit more of an effort to make than regular cookies, but you can custom each jam filling to your liking. You could even make each thumbprint unique. (Gosh, I’m funny!) The cookies in the picture above were made with seedless black raspberry jam, the superior of all jams in the world. Prove me wrong. 😀

Added bonus – this recipe is gluten, dairy, and egg free! 😀



Vegan Thumbprint Cookies

Makes 12 cookies

Time: 40 min

Ingredients:

Dough:

3/4 cup brown or white rice flour

1/4 cup tapioca flour (or your favorite starch)

1 tsp GF baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 TBS agave nectar

1/4 cup applesauce

1/4 cup grape seed oil

1/4 cup mashed ripe banana

Optional: 1 tsp vanilla extract

Outer Covering:

1/4 cup of almond milk*

1 cup of almond meal**

Thumbprint:

1/4 cup of jam of choice (seedless is best)

Directions:

a) Mix all dry ingredients together EXCEPT for almond meal.

b) Mix all wet ingredients together EXCEPT for almond milk, jam.

c) Combine steps a) & b) until it forms into a ball of dough.

d) Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

e) Place a small bowl out and put the almond milk in it. In another small bowl, place your almond meal.

f) Pinch off and roll a 1/2 to 1-inch ball from your lump of dough.

g) Dip the ball in almond milk, and then roll in the almond meal until it is completely covered.

h) Gently flatten the ball into a cookie on the parchment paper-lined sheet.

i) Indent the cookie with your thumb. Be careful not to poke a hole through the dough.

j) Repeat steps f)-i) with the dough. You should have a total of 12 indented cookies.

k) Place all cookies (still on the pan) into the refrigerator for about 20 minutes to harden.

l) Preheat the oven at 350 degrees. Take out cookies and fill each indent with your seedless jam of choice, leaving just a teeny bit of room on the top (this prevents the jam from spilling over while the cookies are baking).

m) Bake for about 10 minutes or until golden-brown.

n) Cool for 5 minutes in the baking sheet, and then transfer cookies onto a wire rack.

o) Cool completely before serving.

Allergy Alternatives & Notes:

*Nut. Use soy or rice milk instead.

**Nut. Toast some quinoa, and once it has cooled grind the quinoa into a fine powder. You’ll get a wonderful nutty flavor from this coating.

By the way, these cookies make great gifts, too. You can shape the cookie dough into flowers or butterflies for Mother’s Day. Or you could make oval-shaped portals for your next Valve LAN party (using blueberry and orange jams, of course!). Either way, I hope you enjoy them!

Questions? Comments? Let me know below!

❤

Hilary

PS – I am not a medical professional. By making these dishes, you are doing so at your own risk.