Author: Tara Daley
There’s something about fall that just makes me want to cook. This obsession may be rooted in the childhood traditions of roasting pumpkin seeds or drinking home-spice apple cider – I’ve always found solace in coming in from a brisk autumn day to seek refuge in the kitchen. Here in Los Angeles, notions of autumn are confounded with 85 degree November days and palm trees that interrupt the few clusters of red and orange tipped leaves in the skyline. Seasons lose a bit of their elegance here, but the slight decrease in temperature still pushes me into the kitchen, inspired to create. Holiday cooking encompasses a variety of flavors, but I believe you can pull off nearly any dish or delight you’d like, as long as it sends off vibrations of warmth.
I remember making a version of these thumbprint cookies nearly every holiday season, helping my mother as we baked an enormous amount of holiday cookies to give out to friends and neighbors. Considering the fact that my idea of cooking involved mixing all of the juices in the refrigerator together and calling it a “crazy concoction,” the fact that my mother allowed me to help at all just doubly reinforces how easy these cookies are to make. This recipe is simple and delicious, creating elegant cookies that will melt in your mouth and bring about feelings of satiation and warmth, even in this already balmy L.A. autumn.
Peanut Butter Thumbprint Cookies (gluten free!)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 cup smooth peanut butter
1 egg
Approx. 20 Hershey’s Kisses
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the three sugars together in a bowl until well blended. You can use one cup of white sugar if you’d prefer, but mixing the three sugars together helps make incredibly moist cookies that are less susceptible to crumbling. Add one cup of peanut butter to the sugar blend. Stir the peanut butter into the sugar until it is roughly incorporated, then add one egg. Mix together until a dough forms.
The dough should be slightly sticky, so be sure to avoid over-mixing. Roll the dough into small balls (this recipe yields approximately 20 cookies) and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. If the dough is sticking too much, place it in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes or until it firms. The cookies won’t spread out too much in the baking process, so if you’d like thin, flat cookies, press gently down into the balls of dough. Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees – the cookies will be soft and slightly underbaked, so if you’d like them to be crunchy, cook for an additional 3-5 minutes.
While the cookies are baking, unwrap 20 Hershey’s Kisses. Place one in the center of each cookie right after removing the tray from the oven. The warm cookies melt the chocolate almost immediately, so either stick them in the refrigerator to cool or enjoy the loveliness that is melted chocolate and warm peanut buttery goodness straight off the baking sheet.
This recipe can easily be adapted if you are not a fan of peanut butter and/or chocolate – just substitute almond butter for peanut butter. After 10-12 minutes of baking, make an indent in the cookie with the back of a spoon or your thumb. Let the cookies cool and fill with raspberry jam.
Some of the best things I’ve ever cooked or eaten have been incredibly simple, made from the most basic ingredients and combined with relaxed ease. While extravagant layer cakes and quail flambéed in cognac are deserving of the utmost culinary admiration, cookies rolled out by hand and pressed with love are just as good and are the perfect way to embrace the colder seasons.
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