Tender Almond Shortbread Cookies with Peach Preserves.
Buttery shortbread, fresh peach preserves, roasted almonds, and a drizzle of almond glaze come together for delicate thumbprint cookies that are positively addicting.
My Grandma was the absolute queen of homemade cookies. All of us grandkids (and great grandkids) have eaten amazing amounts of her cookies throughout the years. They were a staple of our childhood, that I, for one, took for granted. She always had several different kinds in the freezer and rare was the occasion when she didn’t pull some out, presenting a marvelous assortment for us to nibble on (ok… devour) during our visits.
Every Christmas, we all received a tin filled to bursting with several different kinds of small, bite-sized cookies. We all had our favorites. My Dad loved the pecan sandies. My brother was addicted to her gingersnaps. My kids loved her shortbread cookies with a hershey’s kiss in the center. I loved them all, but her jam thumbprint cookies were my favorites. They were tender and buttery and so pretty, with little dollops of jam in the center of each, glittering like jewels.
Several Christmases ago, my Grandparents gave us the best Christmas gift I’ve ever received – a large binder filled with printed pages of Grandma’s recipes. Each recipe includes a few sentences about who loved that particular dish, memories about the occasions on which she served them, and notes about where the recipe came from or what she loved about it. My Grandma, as it turned out, was a food blogger too. She just printed her posts on paper. The recipe binder was a team effort, with my Grandpa decorating the pages with clip art, formatting the recipes, printing the pages, and organizing them into sections. It’s a treasure trove of memories and one of my most prized possessions.
My Grandma passed away earlier this year, leaving a hole in our family that cannot be filled. I am more grateful than ever for that precious binder of her recipes.
The other day, as I nostalgically flipped through it’s pages, I could almost taste her thumbprint cookies, and was gripped with the need to bake some that very moment. I had recently stocked our pantry with jars of homemade peach preserves, so peach thumbprint cookies was a given. I think almonds are the perfect compliment to peaches, but raspberry or apricot would be equally delicious. Use whatever jam or preserves you desire. Or, do what my Grandma always did, and bake an array of gorgeous jewell toned thumbprint cookies by using several different kinds of jam or preserves.
Regardless of they type of fruit jam or preserves you use, the shortbread in these thumbprint cookies practically melts in your mouth. As all good shortbread cookies should be, they are rich, tender, and not too sweet, providing the perfect background for the peaches, roasted almonds and almond glaze.
I’ll tell you right now, that as happy as I am with this thumbprint cookie recipe, they don’t hold a candle to my Grandma’s thumbprint cookies. How could they? They weren’t baked by her.
Peach Almond Shortbread Thumbprint Cookies
- Yield: 40 1x
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
Buttery shortbread, fresh peach preserves, roasted almonds, and a drizzle of almond glaze come together for delicate thumbprint cookies that are positively addicting.
Ingredients
- 1 cup whole almonds
- 1 1/2 cups butter (12 oz.), at room temperature
- 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 2 3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup almond flour
- 2 tsp salt
- 8 oz. peach preserves (or any kind of fruit preserves or jam)
Almond Glaze:
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1–2 tbsp half and half or milk
- 1 tsp almond extract
Instructions
- Spread the almonds out onto a baking sheet and roast for about 10 minutes in a 375 degree oven, until darkened and fragrant smelling. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
- Beat the butter and both sugars with an electric mixer on medium high speed for about 4 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl a couple of times, until the mixture is light and fluffy.
- In a small bowl, whisk the egg, egg yolk and both extracts to combine. Add to butter mixture, beating at medium speed for 1 minute, until well combined.
- Add all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, almond flour and salt to a bowl and stir with a wire whisk to combine. Add to the butter-egg mixture and mix on low speed just until the shortbread dough comes together. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 3 days.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Add the almonds to the the bowl of a food processor, and pulse until the consistency of corn meal – finely chopped, but before their oil starts releasing. Pour into a small bowl.
- Line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper and remove the shortbread dough from the refrigerator. Shape tablespoon size pieces of dough into balls, make an indentation with your thumb in the center of each one, dip the tops in the ground almonds, and place on the baking sheets, sparking them about 2 inches apart. Fill the indentation in each cookie with 1/2 – 1 tsp of preserves.
- Bake for 14-16 minutes. When ready, the cookies will have small cracks in the tops and be set, but still soft. Let cool completely on the baking sheet.
- While they cool, make the glaze: Add the powdered sugar to a medium size bowl along with 1 tbsp milk or half and half and the almond extract. Stir until the powdered sugar is completely dissolved. If too thick to drizzle from a spoon, add up to 1 more tablespoon of milk or half and half. Drizzle over cooled cookies.
- The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days, or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
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Hi Rebecca, its Kristina again (the one that made the Fig newtons). 🙂
I made the batter for this recipe but it seems that is a buttery and not much workable. Do you think it should be that way or should I add flour or it will be better when it stays in the fridge one night and then I should use posh?
https://imgur.com/a/DD3y3mV
By the way I made double dose and I`m making the batter today and baking them tomorrow.
Hi Kristina! I’m so excited that you’re making these! The dough does need to be refrigerated for at least a couple of hours – and overnight, as you’re doing, will be even better. The butter can get super soft; putting it in the refrigerator will firm it up. I looked at the pictures you sent (thank you!), and the dough looks ok… although, I wish I could touch it to make sure! Tomorrow, I’d suggest baking 2 or 3 just to make sure there isn’t a problem with the dough. If, for some reason, the dough doesn’t hold its shape when baking, go ahead and add a bit more flour. But, I bet you’ll be fine. Keep me posted?
Me again. I’ve been wanting to make a batch of these, so I decided to just go ahead and make the dough now, so you could see what the consistency should look like. The dough will be quite soft, but should still hold its shape if you roll it into a ball. Does your dough look like this? https://imgur.com/8a5C8fg
It will firm up more once refrigerated, of course…