I decided the other day that I was going to bake something– not an uncommon occurrence, but this time I had a specific reason: to welcome new neighbors. The problem was, it was the middle of the week, which foreclosed the possibility of shopping for specialty ingredients, and I had to be careful to keep the recipe generally inoffensive. No nuts, in case of allergies. No really unusual spices or flavors (which foreclosed my peanut butter chili crisp cookies as an option). And they had to look at least marginally appetizing, since I couldn’t rely on my reputation for tasty baked goods to encourage people to try them.
I found a jar of raspberry jam in the pantry and decided to make thumbprint cookies– chocolate ones, since raspberry and chocolate is a fantastic combination. I did some digging into various chocolate thumbprint recipes, many of which seemed rather short on chocolate flavor, and finally found one with some unusual-seeming proportions, but which looked interesting. There’s relatively little butter, but the addition of melted chocolate makes up for it while adding a nice dose of chocolate flavor. While the dough starts off soft (and therefore requires thorough chilling before use), it shapes up nicely when cold and doesn’t crack too much when gently flattened onto the cookie sheet.
The finished cookies were really delicious– the cookie base was soft and tender, the jam added the perfect bit of tanginess and interest, and the chocolate garnish was a nice finishing tough. I will definitely add these to my recipe box!
Chocolate Raspberry Thumbprints
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1/3 cup cocoa
- 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/3 cup butter, room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup chocolate chips, melted and cooled
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
- Raspberry jam
- 1 cup chocolate chips for garnish
- In a smallish bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar together.
- Add melted and cooled chocolate and mix until well-combined. Make sure your chocolate isn’t hot, or it’ll melt the butter!
- Beat in eggs one at a time. You’ll have a light brown, creamy batter at this point.
- Add dry ingredients and mix on low speed until a soft dough forms.
- Chill dough completely.
- When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Scoop dough into 1 1/2″ balls and flatten slightly onto parchment-lined baking sheets. Poke 1/2″ deep holes into the dough balls, and fill with raspberry jam.
- Bake 10-15 minutes, until sides are just set. Do not overbake!
- Let cool completely. If you want a little extra shine, top off the jam centers with a touch more fresh jam. Drizzle with additional melted chocolate if desired.
It's All Frosting... 