Happy December, friends! I hope you all had a wonderful and family filled Thanksgiving holiday. I am officially in holiday mode now so I thought I’d kick off our December posts with a Christmas recipe!
Christmas cookies are BIG in my household. They always have been. As soon as December 1 hits, I am instantly taken back in time to days when my mom would teach me how to make ALL of our holiday cookies step by step. I actually used to have a marble notebook where I wrote down the recipe and steps myself in the hopes that the NEXT year, I could take on the responsibility myself.
I did eventually take over the responsibility – and usually used it as an excuse to have friends come over to visit and be my taste testers. But this year, in honor of this 2019 Recipe Project to healthify my family recipes, I made these cookies early (because I had to test the tweaked recipe and make sure it would actually work). It does! So here you go!
I’ve got several Christmas cookie recipes that I’ll be sharing with you but let’s start with my favorite: Thumbprints.
Original Recipe:
- 1/2 cup butter – softened
- 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1 egg – separate egg from whites
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1 cup flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans – I’ve always preferred pecans)
- Jelly (I usually go with raspberry preserves here)
Mix butter, brown sugar, egg yolk, vanilla, flour and salt until well mixed. Spoon batter and roll into egg white and chopped nuts. Put on cookie sheet and make thumbprint in the center. Bake for 5 minutes. Press thumb again and bake 5 more minutes (be careful because it’s been 30 years and I still always burn my finger). Let cool and add jelly in the middle. Delicious!
Healthified Recipe: Please note – these are still COOKIES so they’re still meant as a Christmas TREAT
- 1 1/4 cups almond meal
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup coconut oil
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/8 cup brown sugar OR coconut sugar
- Jelly (still used raspberry preserves)
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Process or blend the almond meal and rolled oats until you have a coarse crumb. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and stir in the flour. Add the rest of the ingredients and still until combined.
Roll the mixture into 1-inch balls and then roll to coat in the sugar. Place on a baking sheet and use your thumb to make an indentation in the middle. Add about 1 teaspoon jelly to the center of each indentation and bake in the preheated oven 10 minutes. Allow to cool on the tray on a cooling rack. Enjoy! *I found this recipe on the Bob’s Red Mill website and tested it out myself – I approve!
Rebecca McKinney
I wanted to create this blog for a few reasons. First and foremost, to share tips, tricks, and knowledge about the food and beverage industry in general but also to help people see a different side of the restaurant world. Every restaurant has a totally unique culture and world within it. I want to help open people’s eyes to more than how fast the service is or how easy or hard it is to secure a reservation.
So, thanks for stopping by! I welcome your ideas, input, and feedback and hope you enjoy!
Eat well & travel often,
Becky McKinney
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