Raspberry Spelt Thumbprint Cookies

These raspberry spelt thumbprint cookies are pretty tall with crispy edges and a soft middle. They require no resting in the fridge and are a sublime combination of tart raspberry and sweet icing. The cookies can be made with regular or spelt flour.

I find thumbprint cookies so much fun to make. There’s something deliciously therapeutic about squishing warm, malleable cookie dough. These raspberry spelt thumbprint cookies are a little unusual. Firstly, the hole is not made before baking, and the raspberries are not used in the filling. They are in the actual cookies. The cookies are thick and chunky and have a very simple icing made with just two ingredients.

Making the thumbprint cookie holes

Most recipes call for you to make the hole before the cookies go into the oven. I have done this in the past, but this time around, I wanted to make a hole after they’d baked. Rather like I do when creating cookie cups.

When making the indentations before baking, you can use your thumb. Thumb-print cookies, right? However, when cookies are straight out of the oven, you run the risk of ending up with third degree burns. You can use the back of a spoon, or even better, a teaspoon measure. The size is perfect, the hole completely round (unlike your thumb print) and absolute no damage to your stumpiest digit.

And you know what, because I could take my time pushing down into the dough to make the hole, the therapy factor making these raspberry spelt thumbprint cookies was multiplied. I’m suddenly aware of how odd I probably sound, so ahem. Moving swiftly on…

Do you add the filling before or after cooking thumbprint cookies?

There are many occasions when you might want to fill your holes before baking. Then, of course, you would need to make the indentations before you bake. It really depends on what you are filling your cookies with. Jam, for example, is much better baked. This allows the jam to kind of melt into the dough as it bakes, and isn’t quite as sticky. This recipe has just a simple icing sugar filling and most definitely shouldn’t be baked.

What other thumbprint cookie fillings could you use?

Again, it depends on whether you are baking the filling. In this case, it could be caramel, jam, cream cheese or anything else than can be heated. If you want to follow my method to create the thumbprint holes after baking, then you could add melted chocolate, frosting, ganache, fresh berries, or anything else you fancy.

Other cookie recipes made with spelt flour

Most of my recipes are made with spelt flour, but you can adapt any of them and use all-purpose (plain) flour instead. Here are some of my favourite spelt flour cookies:

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