My Favorite Christmas Treat: Linzer Thumbprint Cookies

We all have our favorite holiday treats, right? Mine, by far, are these linzer thumbprint cookies!

I love that they are made with old-fashioned ingredients and have a bit of spice to them, yet aren’t overly sugar-sweet like many cookies. My mom has been making these my entire life, so no Christmas in my mind is complete without them! I especially love them with a cup of tea.

We’ve started a tradition of baking some cookies together last year, and I hope we continue it as long as possible. With two crazy little ones, we decided to just do these this year, but we’re going to try to stretch it to one more kind with each passing year 😉

Here’s the super simple recipe. We always double the recipe because they will not last otherwise! {Recipe yields approximately a dozen cookies.}

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup of softened butter
1/2 cup of sugar
1 egg yolk
Grated rind of 1/2 lemon
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1 tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup of flour
1/2 cup of finely ground pecans
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
Raspberry or strawberry jam

DIRECTIONS

Cream butter and sugar together; add egg yolk and beat until light and fluffy. Mix together dry ingredients and add to the wet butter/sugar mixture. Refrigerate until firm {about 10-15 minutes}. Shape into balls and add a thumbprint in the middle, fill it with jam.