Les Madeleines Thumbprint Cookies

Deb's Recipes's Note:

I thought I was in heaven when I bit into one of these melt-in-your-mouth shortbread cookies. Thanks to Chef Romina Rasmussen of Les Madeleines Bakery in Salt Lake City for sharing the recipe.

• Total Time: 1 hrs
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 40 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 48

Yield: 4.0 dozen

• 1 cup finely chopped almonds
• 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar, plus
• 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• jam or fruit preserves

Directions:

1. Lightly toast then cool nuts; chop until very fine and set aside ~ If using a food processor for chopping, allow nuts to cool very thoroughly before chopping them in order to avoid turning them into a paste.
2. Cream butter and sugar for 3-4 minutes in a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment until extra light-colored and fluffy; stir in vanilla.
3. Whisk together dry ingredients; add gradually to butter mixture, stirring just until (do not overmix) dough comes together; stir in chopped nuts.
4. Chill dough if it seems too soft.
5. Form dough into 1 1/4" balls and place onto parchment-lined or ungreased baking sheets; indent the top of each ball of dough with your fingertip or with the dampened end of a wooden spoon.
6. Bake at 325° for 10-12 minutes or just until the cookies start to turn light golden-brown at the edges; remove from oven and sprinkle lightly with powdered sugar; fill each indentation with a bit of jam or fruit preserves ~ I like to use red raspberry preserves.
7. NOTES: Yield becomes 60 cookies when dough is formed into 1" dough balls. And any type of toasted and chopped nuts may be substituted for the almonds.

Reviews

[JuliJ]

These really do melt in your mouth. I halved the recipe with no problems. For something a little bit different, I used some homemade lime jelly. They turned out really well, thanks!

[Chef #1064208]

I made these for christmas last year and my husband just requested them again. They are very good.

[LaJuneBug]

Delicious! DH is a huge fan of shortbreads and these are deceivingly light despite the fat from the butter and the nuts. Mine didn't come out as beautiful as Deb's photo but I had just a little extra ground nuts and I went ahead and used them... the higher fat content from the nuts may be the reason why they spread out a little. We made a half-batch and that's plenty. This will be a fun recipe to play with different jams and nuts. Thanks for posting!