First attempt at thumbprints came out… questionable. They cracked a lot when imprinting and came out very uneven despite using measured quantities and a measuring spoon to indent.
How can I avoid all of that cracking?
Recipe:
1 cup salted butter, softened
½ cup granulated white sugar
¼ cup packed brown sugar
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
Alterations: I subbed out apf for almond flour in an almond batch. I also added rosemary to another batch. But besides the almond ones cooking a bit more dense, aesthetically they came out the same. All are pictured above!
by Old_Monkey
26 Comments
Even so, they were divine
Usually if I have a lot of cracking, it’s because my dough is dry. I’ve combatted this by working in just a bit of milk to soften the dough. You can also just use your fingers to smooth out cracks after you press in the thumbprint.
You may want to look for a recipe that uses weights instead of volumetric measurements. The latter is also going to be less precise, which could lead to a drier dough.
FWIW, though, I usually have a few cracks and they’re no big deal. Kind of part of the thumbprint charm.
I don’t think I have ever made thumbprints that don’t crack…
Thumbprint cookies pretty much ARE crack so I say unavoidable . My credentials are I am terrible at baking and just look at all of the delicious pictures in the sub.
mine also always have done. Â i made a mental note to try to flatten them some pre-bake next time but idk if that would fix it. Â definitely delicious nonetheless but was hoping to nail cookie box holiday perfectionÂ
I would still devour those 13/10!
Add a little more moisture to your dough, and then to make the indent use the underside of a round teaspoon measure while you support the ball (like wrap your fingers loosely around it and sort of squeeze back against the pressure from pushing the spoon in). You get a nice deep indent with no cracking before they bake, and minimal cracking after.
Instead of forming balls and flattening them with your thumb, form flattened discs and slightly press into them. You’ll almost always get cracks if you press a round ball, whereas if you form the final shape in the first place and only press a little bit to form an indent for the filling, you’ll get a more round product in the end. It’ll take some practice to form a flat-formed cookie “ball” but once you get the hang of it, it’ll be your go-to.
A little more hydration and making sure your butter is a bit more mixed will help!
I actually use a little bit of molasses to replace some of the granulated sugar to moisten up the dough! No cracks that way (:
I’ve always gotten cracks in my thumbprint cookies, but had slight success last year while doing holiday baking by shaping my cookies into flat discs (with no indent), putting them in the oven for ~half of their baking time (until they hit the blobby lava stage but aren’t firming up yet), yanked them out of the oven and used a measuring spoon to press the indents as quickly as possible, then put them back into the oven for their remaining bake time, filling them after they cooled. They were significantly less cracked following that method.
It might work to form them with the thumbprint and then freeze them before baking.
You’re cracked! By that I mean you are abound with skill. These look fantastic.
These remind me so much of growing up in Germany. We’re Americans but this is unlocking a memory in Germany from when I was young I can taste it. They look remarkable and I want one lol
I made these recently for the first time and mine cracked a lot but I did figure out something to make them crack significatly less. At first, I rolled all the dough out into little balls and then thumb printed them all. What worked better was rolling one ball and thumb printing immediately after. I guess the dough was a bit warmed up from my hands or something which made it more malleable. I’m curious if that’s how you did it too?
They still look scrumptious!
Oh gosh, they’re still gorgeous and look delicious! I miss my mom’s.
I can’t help you out with what went wrong, but if you’d like to try a different recipe, [this one] (https://www.fromvalerieskitchen.com/jam-thumbprint-cookies/) is a favorite of mine.
Some look smoother than others which makes me think maybe the dough wasn’t fully incorporated leaving dry spots. Still looks delicious
My mom used to substitute a small amount of corn starch for the ap flour. Then she’d let the dough rest in the bowl on the counter for a while before she made it into cookies. It minimized the cracks considerably, but not entirely.
Idk exactly how much corn starch she used, and I can’t ask her since she passed away last summer.
The way we make them (my grandma’s recipe), is to roll the balls in egg white, then chopped nuts, before indenting them. They may crack some but the nuts will hide this. Also, I think they taste so much better!
When I used to work in a bakery, I would wrap a few fingers from one hand to hold the sides when I pressed with my other hands thumb carefully to indent it
They’re so cute tho I love them!
Oh my god these look absolutely AMAZING. I think thumbprint cookies always crack but these cookies look like they were meant to be on a food magazine cover
I didn’t realize they weren’t supposed to crack…
this is one recipe i have a lot of success with. i cut the flour a tiny bit and make sure my butter is actually soft. overworking the dough after adding the flour can make it crack more, too. but cracks are typically inevitable.
https://sugarspunrun.com/thumbprint-cookies/