Pecan Thumbprint Cookies -- Made with Loretta's Pecans and a Sunday That Got Everything Right

Twenty-eight weeks. July and I am very pregnant in the Alabama summer heat and I have accepted this as a permanent condition rather than a temporary one, which makes it easier. Tyler has been strategic about the ceiling fans and the window units and my access to cold water. He texts me from the shop to ask if I am staying cool. I say yes. He says okay. This happens twice daily.

The freezer is a full archive now. Twelve quarts of chicken stock. Eight portions of chili. Six of the pot roast braise. Four loaves of banana bread. A month of dinners. Tyler looked in it last week and said: you are ready. I said: not quite. He said: what else. I said I wanted to make more biscuit mix, which you can freeze as individual portions in a bag and then bake from frozen in twenty-five minutes. He said: that seems like a lot of biscuit. I said: there is no such thing as a lot of biscuit. He said he could not argue with that.

Went to Gloria on Sunday and she was in the best spirits I had seen her in months. Her sister Loretta had been visiting and they had been watching old movies and Loretta had brought pecans from a tree in her yard and we made a spontaneous pecan pie while Destiny helped by eating pecans from the bowl at a rate that required us to use more than the recipe asked for. Everything about that Sunday was very right.

That Sunday at Gloria’s — Loretta’s pecans, the old movies, Destiny quietly depleting the bowl — it stayed with me all week. We ended up with pecan pie, which was exactly right for the moment, but when I got home I kept thinking about those pecans and wanting a way to carry that afternoon a little further. Pecan thumbprint cookies are what came of it: simple enough to make at twenty-eight weeks in July, sturdy enough to go straight into the freezer alongside everything else, and sweet in exactly the way that Sunday was sweet.

Pecan Thumbprint Cookies

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 14 minutes | Total Time: 34 minutes | Servings: 24 cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups finely chopped pecans, divided
• 1/2 cup pecan halves, for topping
• 1/2 cup jam or preserves (strawberry, apricot, or raspberry), or pecan pie filling

Instructions

1. Preheat oven. Heat your oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Cream butter and sugar. In a large bowl, beat the softened butter and powdered sugar together with a hand mixer or stand mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2–3 minutes. Add the vanilla extract and mix to combine.
3. Add dry ingredients. Reduce mixer speed to low and add the flour and salt, mixing just until a soft dough forms. Fold in 1 cup of the finely chopped pecans with a spatula or wooden spoon.
4. Shape the cookies. Roll the dough into 1-inch balls. Roll each ball in the remaining 1/2 cup of chopped pecans, pressing gently so they adhere. Place on the prepared baking sheets about 2 inches apart.
5. Make the thumbprint. Use your thumb or the back of a rounded teaspoon to press a well into the center of each cookie. The edges may crack slightly — gently pinch them back together if needed.
6. Fill and top. Spoon about 1/2 teaspoon of jam or pecan pie filling into each well. Press a pecan half gently on top if desired.
7. Bake. Bake for 12–14 minutes, until the edges are just beginning to turn golden and the bottoms are lightly browned. Do not overbake.
8. Cool. Let cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before storing.
9. Freeze if desired. Layer cooled cookies between sheets of parchment in an airtight container or zip-top bag and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature for about 20 minutes before serving.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 175 | Protein: 2g | Fat: 12g | Carbs: 15g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 35mg