Thumbprint Traditions
14 Nov
Thumbprint cookies have always reminded me of the holiday season. These tasty morsels just ooze holiday spirit for me! My family always have an abundance of cookies at the holiday table and the ones I most look forward to are thumbprints, for sure. Being vegan for the past few years of holidays, I’ve missed out on my favorite cookie.
I turned to My Sweet Vegan, by Hannah Kaminksy, to test out a recipe to bring to Thanksgiving dinner. When I first laid eyes on the recipe, I was very intrigued. Hannah puts a spin on the traditional fruit filling, by switching it out with a cream cheese mixture. I combined the filling ingredients into my mixer, as Hannah instructed, and kicked it up a notch by adding two big scoops of strawberry spread.
The cookie base of this recipe uses two different flours, all purpose and graham flour. I’ve never seen graham flour before, so I just gave a few graham crackers a whiz in the food processor until they were a fine powder. The graham flour is perfect for thumbprint cookies!
The cookies turned out a bit crunchy on the outside, and soft and chewy inside. Filled with the strawberry cheesecake, they burst with flavor. It’s like your own personal mini-cheesecake! I am positive that these cookies are sure to impress everyone this Thanksgiving.
What is your favorite holiday cookie?
By the way, I’ve also got a chocolate ganache tart chilling in the fridge. Recipe to come!
Favorite holiday cookie = gingerbread men!
Be still my beating heart! These sound like the cookies of my dreams – crispy and crunchy on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside AND filled with strawberries and cream cheese?!?!? Oh my….I have to make these because I think I’m in love.
GORGEOUS photos! This was a fantastic post.
Oh yay, they look so good! I don’t think I’ve seen anyone make these before, so I’m very excited you would try them out.
These look adorable! And tasty. Love the graham mixture + vegan cream cheese. Perfection.
Chocolate ganache tart? You are a baking queen!
Those look amazing! Reading your entries every day has made me miss baking so much! Unfortunately, where I am currently in a remote community there are no baking supplies to be found.
Good thing I can live (and taste!) vicariously though you!
I love the new picture on your blog title!
These cookies look great. My favorte holiday cookie would have to be either 1) cutouts with icing, 2) Those peanut butter cookies with the Hershey’s kiss (name???) or 3) Buckeyes! (not a cookie, but a holiday treat).
Have a great day!
Favorite holiday cookie = Gingerbread men or Snickerdoodles!
I’ve always wanted to make that recipe but haven’t gotten around to it. Maybe this Christmas I will make them for the family.
Those sound great! I haven’t had many thumbprint cookies before. I love that these have a cream cheese filling instead of the typical jam filling.
I always make crazy amounts of cookies around the holidays. I don’t know if I can pick one favorite, but I’m partial to the Sparkled Ginger Cookies in VWaV.
those look so great! i never come around to baking! but these look amazing, maybe i’ll give baking a go
love thumbprint cookies, and holiday cookies are so great, so many great holiday cookies! i am always a fan of lemon cookies..but thats not holiday-ish 
but my fave holiday cookie is definatly gingersnap!
xxo
maya
that sounds awesome! those cookies are adorable
omg that looks AMAZING i would die to try some of your baked treats!!
Beautiful photos! I can’t wait to start making Christmas cookies!
By the way, are there particular books you would recommend for learning how to take pictures of food? What kind of camera do you use? Thank you!
Hi there! I haven’t used any books, but here are some sites that helped me out so much:
http://thepioneerwoman.com/photography/
http://digital-photography-school.com/food-photography-an-introduction
http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/001451.html
http://stilllifewith.com/
http://strobist.blogspot.com/2009/06/food-photography-made-easy-lunch-box.html
and I wrote a little something up too:
http://anotheronebitesthecrustblog.com/2009/09/15/food-photography-101-part-one/
As for my camera, I just got a new one about a week ago! It’s a Canon 5D Mark II and it rules, but before that I used a Canon Rebel T1i that was fabulous as well. Aaaand before that, I used Canon Rebel XT! I also mostly always use a 50mm lens for food photography
By the way, I saw on your profile that you are from New Haven! I am too! I just moved here this month and I am looking for friends!
Holiday baking is soooo much funny!!! I love all cookies ha ha
These look SO amazing!!
These are just adorable. Mmm.
Soft and chewy ginger molasses cookies are definitely my favorite holiday cookie, but these look pretty good too!
Great twist on thumbprint cookies. You could make any sort of “mini cheesecake” flavour you wanted – chocolate, raspberry, coconut. Yum!
How is cream cheese vegan??
It’s vegan cream cheese- Tofutti brand!