High Altitude Gingerbread Pecan Caramel Thumbprint Cookies
A high altitude recipe for caramel thumbprint cookies, made with soft and chewy gingerbread spiced sugar cookies, rolled in crushed pecans and filled with sweet caramel.
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)
- Food Processor or Pastry Cutter
Ingredients
- ⅔ cup pecans
- 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)
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- ¼ tsp ground allspice
- ¾ cup cold unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons
- 2 large egg yolks (save the whites for another use)
- 1 tbsp molasses
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup caramel sauce
Instructions
Make the Cookie Dough
- In your food processor, pulse the pecans until very finely chopped. Scrape the chopped pecans into a bowl, and set aside.
- In your food processor, pulse together the flour, corn starch, powdered sugar, baking powder, salt and spices, until combined.
- With the processor running, drop the cold butter down the chute, one tablespoon at a time, until the mixture is moist and crumbly and there are no visible chunks of butter.
- Add the egg yolks, molasses and vanilla, and run the processor until the mixture comes together into a soft dough.
- Use a medium cookie scoop to scoop the dough into 20 equal portions.
- Roll each portion of dough into a smooth ball between your hands, then roll the dough balls in the crushed pecans. 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 caramel. 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.
Fill with Caramel
- Spoon about 1/2 tsp caramel into each cookie, being careful not to over-fill the cookies.
- Store cookies in a single layer in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
- If making the cookies in advance and freezing them for later, I recommend freezing them in an airtight container without the caramel. Fill with caramel after thawing out the cookies when you're ready to serve them.
Notes
To make these cookies nut free, simply roll the dough balls in granulated sugar (or cinnamon-sugar) instead of the crushed pecans.
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