Pecan Thumbprints

I found a delectable cookie recipe in one of my Better Homes and Gardens cookbooks.  The thing I really like about it is that it utilizes some of the many homemade jams I'm quickly adding to my pantry arsenal.  The recipe is as follows.

Ingredients:
     ~2/3 cup butter, softened
     ~1/2 cup sugar
     ~2 egg yolks
     ~1 tsp vanilla
     ~1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
     ~2 slightly beaten egg whites
     ~1 cup finely chopped walnuts (I used pecans though)
     ~jam, preserves, or frosting for the centers

1.  Beat butter w/ an electric mixer for 30 seconds.  Add sugar, beat until combined, scraping bowl.  Beat in egg yolks and vanilla until combined.  Beat in as much flower as possible and stir in remaining flour.  Cover and chill dough for 1 hour or until easy to handle.
2.  Shape dough into 1 inch balls, roll in egg whites and then nuts.  Place 1 inch apart on greased cookie sheet and press your thumb into the center of each ball.  Bake at 375 for 10 to 12 minutes, or until edges are lightly browned.  Let cool, and fill centers with jam or frosting just before serving.

Here's kinda what it looks like.

Whipped butter & sugar.  This is like dessert to my husband.  It's good he wasn't around or these cookies may have never come to pass.

I cracked some pecans for the cookies.  Curiously I found one that said "Your Mom" on it.  I don't....I just don't even know.

Roll 'em in balls, dip 'em in egg whites and pecans.  Stick them on the pan and put your thumb in the middle of them.  Be sure that you make the dimple pretty deep, it tends to want to fill back up while baking.

Ready to go in the oven!  I wanted to make a few without the pecans just in case I wasn't crazy about them, and I wasn't sure if the egg whites would make or break the recipe, so I did a few
samples to see. The egg whites make them shiny, and they also hold them together
a little better.  But if you choose to go without the pecans or the egg whites, just
make sure your dough is good and cold, because this stuff
gets gooey quick, and will not hold the shape right.

Here they are!  You may notice an imprint on the cookies.  That's because I didn't make the centers deep enough, and had to squish them down when they were fresh out of the oven.  I filled my cookies with my (not to tout) insane-o delishus Peach Cobbler Jam, but you could use any jam you have, or frosting.  You could also skip the filling and eat them as is, they taste similar to a
pecan sandie, but aren't as tough.

Try them!  They're not very difficult, but they do make an impressive gift!  Happy merry making!