Red Velvet Thumbprint Cookies

March, and Mama's birthday — March 28th — the third without her. The coconut cake at four AM, three layers, cream cheese frosting, the ritual that does not fade with the years but that deepens, the way a well deepens with use, the depth being the history of the drawing, the drawing being the making, the making being the love.

I took cake to the cemetery. I stood at the headstone and I said, "Mama, Carrie is graduating from Emory in May. James is married and happy. Joy is painting sunflowers. Robert built me a pen. The second book is being printed. I am writing a blog about your food. Your recipes are in kitchens all over the South. You are alive in the cooking, Mama. You are alive in the stirring." The speaking to the stone is the practice. The practice is the love. The love does not require the beloved to hear. It requires only the lover to speak.

Joy sang "Happy Birthday" on the phone. The singing was the same — loud, joyful, off-key, perfect. Joy does not sing differently because Mama is gone. Joy sings the same. The same-ness is Joy's gift: the refusal to let death change the singing, because the singing is for the living, not the dead, and the living require the singing more than the dead do.

I made coconut cake. Three years. Three cakes. The three is the beginning of the always. And the always is the love.

The coconut cake is Mama’s—it belongs to March 28th and to no other day. But after the cemetery, after Joy’s off-key singing faded from the phone line and the kitchen went quiet, I needed something to make just for me, something small and red and pressed by hand. These red velvet thumbprint cookies are not Mama’s recipe, but they are Southern through and through, and the act of pressing your thumb into each warm cookie—leaving your mark, your print, yourself—felt like exactly the right thing to do on a day that was all about presence and about love that does not require the beloved to hear it.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 12 min | Total Time: 32 min | Servings: 24 cookies

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tablespoon red food coloring
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon white vinegar
For the cream cheese filling:
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1–2 tablespoons whole milk, as needed for consistency

Instructions

Preheat oven. Heat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
Whisk dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt until evenly combined.
Cream butter and sugar. In a large bowl, beat softened butter and granulated sugar with a hand mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2–3 minutes.
Add wet ingredients. Beat in the egg, red food coloring, vanilla extract, and white vinegar until fully incorporated and the batter is a deep, uniform red.
Combine. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in two additions, mixing on low just until a soft dough forms. Do not overmix.
Scoop and roll. Scoop dough by the tablespoon and roll into smooth balls. Place 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.
Press thumbprints. Use your thumb (or the rounded end of a wooden spoon) to press a deep indentation into the center of each cookie ball, being careful not to press all the way through.
Bake. Bake for 11–13 minutes, until the edges are set and the tops no longer look raw. If the indentations have puffed up, gently re-press them with the back of a small spoon immediately after pulling from the oven. Let cookies cool on the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Make the filling. Beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla together until smooth and creamy. Add milk one tablespoon at a time if needed to reach a thick but pipeable consistency.
Fill cookies. Spoon or pipe the cream cheese filling into the center of each cooled cookie. Allow filling to set for 10 minutes before serving.

Nutrition (per serving)

Red Velvet Thumbprint Cookies — Made in Her Memory, Pressed with Love