Nutella Swirl Thumbprint Cookies

Christmas is just around the corner and I am sure many of you are busy baking cookies now. I won’t be baking much this year. I asked Diana what cookies she wants me to bake for Christmas and as usual she wanted Chocolate Chips cookies and this Thumbprint Cookies. These cookies are one of the classic cookies that I made every Christmas. I think we like it a lot because of the combination of buttery cookies and sweet jam.

Making these cookies is a bit more work if you are doing it alone as it took me a couple of hours just to roll them and filled them up with jams. Feel free to get your family or friends involved if you are making this. I add some Nutella to the dough to make it look a bit more attractive. I just mailed them to Diana and another friend of mine in PA and I hope they like it.

Ingredients:

3 stick/1 ½ cups butter – room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
¾ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp vanilla
1-2 tbsp milk - optional
2 tbsp nutella

Topping:

Some jam

1. Sift flour, salt and baking powder and set it aside. In an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and well combined. Add in the vanilla and mix well.
2. Lower down the speed of the mixer and add in the flour. Mix until dough comes together. If the dough is too crumbly you can add a bit of milk to it (I didn’t add any to this).
3. Remove 2/3 of the plain dough and mix in the nutella to the balance 1/3 of the dough. Mix it well. 4. Pinch some of the plain dough and a bit of the nutella dough and roll them up together. Place the balls on a baking sheet that line with parchment paper. Press a light indentation into the middle of each with your thumb or a round spoon.
5. Put about ¼ tsp of jam into each indentation. Bake cookies at pre-heated 350 degree F oven for 20-25 minutes or until it is lightly brown. 6. Remove from oven and let it cool completely on a rack before storing it in an air-tight container.