Sourdough Thumbprint Cookies

Sweet sourdough cookies with a jammy centre - perfect to fill the cookie jar with or gift at Christmas time. Use whatever jam you prefer - strawberry is my favorite!

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine American

Keyword Sourdough Discard

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 18

Total Time 48

Servings Cookies

Calories 86kcal

Equipment

2 Cookie Sheets Lined with parchment paper

Ingredients

125 g Unsalted Butter softened at room temperature
200 g Fine Sugar caster sugar or fine granulated sugar
1 Egg + Egg Yolk
100 g Sourdough Starter or sourdough starter discard
5 g Vanilla Extract
350 g All Purpose Flour
6 g Baking Powder (1 tsp)
pinch Salt see notes
100 g Strawberry Jam or any flavor you prefer

Instructions

If you are going to bake the cookies straight after forming them, preheat the oven to 350F (180C). If you are going to ferment them, do not preheat the oven.
Cream the softened butter and sugar using a hand mixer or stand mixer. The mixture should be light and fluffy.
Now add the egg and egg yolk, vanilla extract and sourdough starter to the butter and sugar mixture and mix on moderate speed until well combined.
Next add the flour, baking powder and pinch of salt to the wet ingredients and bring together into a dough (you can use a wooden spoon or your hands if you prefer - I find this step easier to do by hand as the stiff dough will bog the hand mixer).
Use a teaspoon to scoop out balls of dough. Roll the balls a little and place them onto the prepared baking trays. I find the balls are perfect around 15g each, but you can go up to 20g.
Use a small spoon (half teaspoon is perfect) to make a small indent in the centre of each cookie. This is the "thumbprint" but a spoon is much easier.
** if you want to ferment the cookies, place the cookies into the fridge at this point. You can leave them up to 24 hours in the fridge)** (see notes for further information).
Use a small spoon to place a little jam into the indent in each cookie. You don't want to overfill them or they will make a mess in the oven.
Place the sourdough thumbprint cookies into an oven at 350F (180C) for around 15 to 18 minutes or until they are just golden and the jam is bubbling.
Remove from the oven and allow to sit for 5 minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring to a wire rack to firm up.

Notes

BUTTER

If you are using salted butter, leave out the pinch of salt. Butter must be soft, NOT melted, or it won't cream properly with the sugar.

FERMENTING THE COOKIES

You can leave the cookies in the fridge for up to 24 hours before baking. I recommend shaping the cookies and leaving in the fridge on the baking tray as the dough gets very hard in the fridge and will difficult to shape. You can bake the cookies straight from the fridge. I don't cover them if leaving them in the fridge as they tend to form condensation.

JAM

I love making these sourdough thumbprint cookies with strawberry jam but I've also made them using apricot, blueberry, raspberry and whatever other jam flavors we have on hand at the time. Use whatever you have and your family will love.

If you don't have jam, you could also pop a glace cherry in each cookie or even a little pie fruit or puree.

Nutrition