Peanut Butter & Jelly Thumbprints
If you love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or PB&J otters (wait, what?), then you will love these thumbprint cookies! They are so good that the fiancé is once again lecturing me for giving them away to my neighbours. They are also so easy to make and super fun, especially with young children as well.
Tip #1, or rather, the most important tip:
USE THE MOST BASIC CREAMY PEANUT BUTTER IN ANY SUPERMARKET. Now, I’m not trying to give a bad name to any peanut butter brands out there, but I’d avoid using any expensive ones that are organic or made with unique oil etc. Mainly because these cookies need that strong peanut butter flavour and it would be a waste to use your good quality ones, which are great for health purposes but tend to lack that classic rich, classic, in-your-face peanut butter flavour.
If you feel guilty, practice altruism and give some to your neighbours! 🙂
Tip #2:
The peanuts don’t have to be roasted or blanched beforehand. If you are using roasted peanuts, you may end up burning them as you bake these cookies.
Tip #3:
After you’ve shaped these cookies, leave them to chill in the fridge for an hour or so. This process helps to relax the cookies so that they have a more uniform expansion as you bake them.
My thumbprints actually came out a little larger than a conventional thumbprint. However, I think they are actually the perfect size for me to snack on. And yes, I totally weighed them out to make sure that they were all equal sized. The cookie dough (without the crushed peanuts) was divided into 25g each, which is equivalent to around 1.5 tablespoons. For that size, I used a 1/2 teaspoon to create the indents in the centre of each cookie ball.
As for the fillings, I used strawberry jam and this hibiscus/raspberry jam from The Bread Station. The latter was actually really delicious, but nothing beats the classic strawberry jam and PB combination.
Peanut Butter & Jelly Thumbprints
Ingredients
- 180 g Unsalted butter , softened
- 70 g Brown sugar
- 50 g White caster sugar
- 1 Egg yolk
- 100 g Peanut butter (creamy/smooth)
- 260 g All-purpose flour ,
- 1/4 tsp Baking soda
- 1 tsp Cornflour
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 110 g Shelled raw peanuts
- 15 g Jam of your choice
- Sea salt for sprinkles (optional)
Instructions
- Line a baking tray with a baking sheet. In a food processor (or using a knife), coarsely chop the peanuts. Leave them in a small bowl for rolling.
- In a separate bowl, sift the flour, salt and baking soda together. Use a fork to mix the flour mixture.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer for 3 minutes. Add the egg yolk and continue mixing to combine. Mix in the peanut butter until fully incorporated.
- Add the dry ingredients into the mixing bowl and mix just until the cookie dough is incorporated.
- Measure out 1-2tbsp of cookie dough and roll them into balls. * Roll onto the crushed peanuts to coat the cookie dough balls. Place the cookie balls on the prepared tray, leaving a little space in between each ball. Using a teaspoon or your finger, indent in the middle to create a thumbprint. Chill in the fridge for an hour.
- Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celcius fan-assisted.
- Take the chilled cookie dough balls out of the fridge and fill them with your desired jam. Sprinkle with sea salt. Bake for 15-17 minutes. Let the cookies cool completely on the baking tray. Otherwise, transfer to a wire rack after 10 minutes.
Notes
