Thumbprint Cookies

I grew up making these with my Mum, I loved pressing my thumbs into the cold dough. A rich butter cookie rolled in nuts and filled with jam — they’re simply the best. They're super simple to make and as long as you have sugar, butter and flour you can customise the rest.

Sometimes I add ground ginger instead of cinnamon or use dark brown sugar for an extra caramel intensity. For the nuts, I like them with hazelnuts but a mix of walnuts or almonds are both really good. It’s important to keep the skin on no matter what nut you use. That slightly bitter flavour of the skin works so wonderfully with the sweet jam.

Ingredients

• 160g of salted butter

• 160g of light brown sugar

• 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon

• 250g of plain flour

• 300g of nuts (I like the bitterness of walnuts here)

• ½ a jar of your favourite jam

In a large bowl use an electric whisk to cream together the butter and sugar. Once that’s fluffy and pale add in the vanilla and cinnamon. Once that’s combined slowly mix in the flour in stages, as it becomes a dough, use your hands to form it together. Flatten the dough out and let it cool in the fridge for an hour. Turn the oven to 180°C.

Use a food processor to blitz the nuts together, don’t let them get too fine, you still want some texture. When the dough is chilled use a teaspoon to measure out the cookies. Form each ball into a sphere using the palms of your hands. As you do this the butter on the outside will start to melt.

Fill a shallow bowl with the nuts and roll each ball of dough in them coating evenly. Once they’re all rolled, press your thumb firmly into the centre of each to make space for the jam. Fill each thumbprint with half a teaspoon or so of jam. Bake for 15 minutes until they’re golden and the jam is bubbling.