The crime scene: my kitchen. The crime: early morning baking. The evidence: fingerprints everywhere. Baking isn’t generally a punishable crime, especially if I get it cleaned up quickly so that, by the time Mark rolls out of bed, there isn’t any evidence.
This time, I left my fingerprints all over the place for Mark to find. I counted 62 fingerprints and a lot of white powdery stuff! I made 5 dozen plus 2 of these wonderful almond “fingerprint” cookies. (Most people call these thumbprint cookies but my thumbs are way too big for the job; using my index finger was definitely the way to go!)
Before you knew it, the fingerprints were gone — we ate a few and gave most to friends and neighbors. Happily, I have been acquitted of any crime as the evidence had all been eaten.
~ David
Almond Fingerprint Cookies
To print the recipe, please click on teh small printer icon below.
Ingredients
- 7 ounces almond paste
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 12 ounces European-style unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 large egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- pinch salt
- 1/4 cup raspberry jam
- 1/4 cup apricot jam, puréed if chunky
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F. Line 2-3 baking trays with parchment.
- Tear almond paste into pieces and add to the food processor. Add sugar and pulse 10 times to break up the almond paste, then turn on and process until mixture resembles sand.
- Pour the almond/sugar mixture into the bowl of a standing mixer. Add butter and beat until creamy. Add egg and yolk, and beat until mixture is light and fluffy. Mix in vanilla extract. Add flour and pinch of salt and mix until just incorporated. Pull the dough together into a ball.
- Roll 1/2 ounce portions (about a tablespoon) into balls and place on baking sheets 2 inches apart. Lightly wet your forefinger or thumb, and press down into the center of each ball making an indentation. Fill each indentation with a scant 1/4 teaspoon jam — half the cookies with raspberry, half with apricot.
- Bake for 14 minutes, or until you can see a slight golden-brown edge at the bottom. Allow to cool in the pan until firm enough to transfer to a rack.
- Dust with powdered sugar.
- Makes approximately 5 dozen
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Edna Meza-Aguirre
January 21, 2023 at 6:19 amI’m making these today. Thanks David!
David Scott Allen
January 21, 2023 at 6:27 amI know you will love them, Edna! Let me know if you have any questions!
Mad Dog
January 21, 2023 at 7:38 amHa ha – they look delicious too! I remember being about 5 years old and seeing a cousin in the kitchen pretending she could cook. There were eggs and flour everywhere. My aunt practially killed her!
Cocoa & Lavender
January 21, 2023 at 10:24 amThat is too funny, Mad Dog! I’m the kind of cook that doesn’t clean up as I go, which makes the kitchen look much worse in the end. However, in my defense, I’m concentrating on the end product. I just need a sous chef.
Jill W Becker
January 21, 2023 at 9:50 amLook yummy – must try. I can’t believe neither the mixer nor the food processor woke Mark! What a sound sleeper.
Cocoa & Lavender
January 21, 2023 at 10:25 amLuckily, we have it set up so that he can’t hear it. The only thing he can hear in the morning is the spice grinder. So I try to use that minimally pre-dawn.
Ronit
January 21, 2023 at 10:08 amlol If all crime scenes looked like this, the world would have been a much better place!
The cookies look fabulous. I haven’t made thumb print cookies in a long time, so thanks for the reminder! 🙂
Cocoa & Lavender
January 21, 2023 at 10:25 amAgreed! This is definitely the best kind of crime scene!
Pauline
January 21, 2023 at 2:44 pmWhen was baking ever a crime, except I guess when dieting has become a pact between a couple, however that doesn’t seem to last very long in our home. Love the theme of your post though:) In our Summer, early morning baking is a thing. David your biscuits look so perfect, it’s as if you measured them, and performed the process quite scientifically. We call similar biscuits, Jam Drops here. but I love your name. Great post thanks David, and I must hunt down Almond paste now.
Cocoa & Lavender
January 22, 2023 at 2:31 pmThanks, Pauline. Mark thinks baking is a crime because we don’t “need” desserts! To that, I say, “Hah!” Though, seriously, my biggest crime is the mess I make. For your Jam Drops, do you add the jam before or after baking?
Pauline McNee
January 26, 2023 at 4:24 amBefore baking David.
Cocoa & Lavender
January 31, 2023 at 9:32 amThat’s the way I like it, too!
Eha
January 21, 2023 at 6:47 pm*smile* I may not make or usually eat baked hoods containing ‘evil Mrs Sugar’ but these look so beautiful and dainty and appetizing I just may make and exercise ‘portion control’ ! Two or three little beauties definitely do not form any ‘criminal offence’ !!!
Cocoa & Lavender
January 22, 2023 at 2:32 pmI agree with you Eha — no real crime unless I eat the whole 5 dozen!
sherry
January 22, 2023 at 3:58 amthese look very cute david. I too usually end up giving most of my baking away as it is not really in our eating plan 🙂 But we have to spoil ourselves now and then. Happy baking, you master mind criminal – tee hee :=)
Cocoa & Lavender
January 22, 2023 at 2:33 pmI like “master mind criminal,” Sherry —thanks! No, cookies aren’t on our diet plan either but I do need a little something for dessert…
Chef Mimi
January 22, 2023 at 4:00 pmSo pretty! You almost make me wish I baked… almost!
David Scott Allen
January 23, 2023 at 7:47 amWell, should you decide you need to bake, this is a good recipe to try! 🙂
2pots2cook
January 25, 2023 at 5:44 amWow! Would gladly join your crime scene David! 🙂
Cocoa & Lavender
January 31, 2023 at 9:33 amFunny, Davorka, you weren’t the first to say that!
Karen (Back Road Journal)
January 28, 2023 at 8:32 amI had to laugh at your title, it sounds like the way my kitchen has looked before, especially when powdered sugar was involved. Your cookies are perfect.
Cocoa & Lavender
January 31, 2023 at 9:28 amI wish I had the nerve to show the “crime scene“ in my kitchen when I tried to spatchcock a turkey! Let’s just say that it involves saws, hatchets, and various other frightening looking tools!
Jeff the Chef
January 29, 2023 at 8:38 amThat the kind of crime I approve of! I love thumbprint cookies, but I haven’t made them in ages. When I did, I don’t think I used almond paste, so that seems really interesting. Thanks for the recipe!
Cocoa & Lavender
January 31, 2023 at 9:23 amJeff, the almond paste really makes these cookies extra special. The ones I grew up with were plain, as well.
Valentina
January 30, 2023 at 10:50 amSuch pretty (and tasty!) little cookies. The fingerprints! Haha. 🙂 ~Valentina
Cocoa & Lavender
January 31, 2023 at 9:18 amI am admittedly a messy cook! Lucky for Mark, I. like to do it really early in the morning so I can get it cleaned up before he wakes up.
Frank | Memorie di Angelina
February 1, 2023 at 2:07 pmReal Sherlock Holmes stuff, lol! And tasty, too. Almond paste makes the most delicious cookies, doesn’t it? And then there’s the sugar and the jams… Even I’m salivating and I don’t have much of a sweet tooth!
Cocoa & Lavender
February 6, 2023 at 8:18 amMark – who, like you, doesn’t love sweets, ate quite a few before I gave them away! 🙂 I agree about almond paste – just love what it does to cookies and cakes.
Inger
February 2, 2023 at 6:19 amHa ha! Alas, I am one of those people who don’t like almond paste. Pretty though and what a great way to avoid “holiday withdrawal”!
Cocoa & Lavender
February 6, 2023 at 8:16 amI am always fascinated at the things people don’t like. But we all have our preferences, right?