High Altitude Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies
A high altitude recipe for chocolate thumbprint cookies, made with soft and chewy sugar cookies filled with rich chocolate ganache.
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Medium Cookie Scoop with Release Lever (1 1/2 - 2 tbsp capacity)
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- 1 tbsp corn starch
- ¾ cup powdered sugar
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ¾ cup cold unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons
- 2 large egg yolks (save the whites for another use)
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- ¼ cup granulated sugar, for rolling the dough balls
- 2 oz heavy whipping cream
- 2 oz good quality chocolate, roughly chopped
Instructions
Make the Cookie Dough
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, corn starch, powdered sugar, baking powder and salt, until well combined.
- Add the cold butter pieces, and use a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the flour mixture until very small pieces of butter remain, and the mixture is crumbly.
- Add the vanilla extract and egg yolks, and stir in to moisten the dry ingredients, then use your hands to work the moisture in until it comes together into a soft dough.Tip: If you're having a hard time getting the dough to come together, your egg yolks may be on the small side, and you may need to add more moisture, either with another egg yolk, or a very small amount of milk.
- Use a medium cookie scoop to scoop the dough into 20 equal portions.
- Roll each portion of dough into a smooth ball, then coat the dough balls in the 1/4 cup of granulated sugar. Press the bottom of a 1/2 tsp measuring spoon into each dough ball to indent the center.
- Cover and chill the unbaked cookies in the refrigerator for 1 hour, to help them maintain their shape as they bake.
Bake the Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Line a large baking sheet with a piece of nonstick baking paper or parchment paper.
- Place the chilled cookies 3 inches apart on the baking sheet. Bake for about 10-11 minutes, just until the edges are set, and the color is a pale golden brown. If the centers of the cookies puffed a little, immediately use a teaspoon to press the centers of the cookies down again, making a well that you'll be filling with ganache. They may seem a little doughy and under-baked in the centers, but that's how they should be, and they will set up as they cool. You don't want to over-bake these cookies or they can get dry.
- Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for 2 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool while you make the ganache.
Fill with Ganache
- In a small saucepan, combine the cream and chopped chocolate. Warm the mixture over medium low heat, stirring with a spatula, just until the cream is warm and the chocolate is starting to melt. Remove from the heat and stir into a smooth ganache.
- Spoon the ganache into the centers of the cookies. The ganache will firm up and set in about an hour.
- Store cookies in a single layer in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
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