Chocolate thumbprint biscuits with jam and peanut butter

Thank you, very much, for your kind words and thoughts on my last post. I generally steer clear of posts that are very personal, but whenever I do veer into that territory (generally for the things that seem too important not to post about), I am rewarded by such kindness and generosity of spirit. Thank you.

I hope that these biscuits, or cookies to Americans, will help to convey some of that thanks. 

Granted, you will have to make them yourself (sorry about that), but they are so quick to make that the whole process can be done in 30 minutes, start to finish, washing up included. I made them after work on Friday to take to my parents on Saturday, and was pleasantly surprised at their ease and the result. 

They are biscuits to say "I'm thinking of you", whether that be to offer empathy and sympathy, to say thank you, or just to convey general well wishes.

They can be filled with any jam or nut butter flavour of your choosing.

They are really delicious.

And they are really, really easy.

Chocolate thumbprint biscuits with jam and peanut butter fillings

Substantially adapted from Kitchen Daily's chocolate thumbprint cookies and Dairy Free Cooking's thumbprint cookies

Makes about 32 biscuits

Vegan

Print recipe

Ingredients

1/3 cup oil

1/4 cup non-dairy milk (I used unsweetened almond milk)

1 tsp vanilla

2/3 cup white sugar

1 1/4 cups plain flour

1/3 cup good quality cocoa

1 tsp baking powder

Pinch salt

~1 tbsp water

Jam (the higher fruit content the better) and peanut butter (I used crunchy with 100% peanuts), for filling

Method

Preheat your oven to 180'C and line 3 baking trays with baking paper.

Mix the oil, milk and vanilla together, then add the sugar and stir well. Add the remaining dry ingredients and mix well to combine. The batter should be thick.

Add the water, enough to make the dough just thicker than thick cake batter (I used 1 tbsp).

Roll dough into small balls and place on the prepared baking trays. Do not press the balls.

Bake for 10 minutes, at which point the balls should have expanded in size. With your jam and peanut butter on hand, press the centre of each ball with your thumb, and then drop ~1 teaspoon of jam or peanut butter into the hole.

Return to the oven and bake for an additional 2 - 3 minutes. The biscuits will still be slightly soft. Allow to cool completely on the baking trays before storing in an airtight container.

My Mum described these as 'brownie like' and Mr Bite declared that I could omit the filling in future, and just give him the biscuits straight up. They are almost cake-like in their consistency and whilst I found the filling to be quite an essential component myself, I do agree that the biscuit base is highly enjoyable.

If you're feeling particularly decadent, you could even eat these sandwiched together, jam on one half and peanut butter on the other. Or you could try an almond butter filling. Or a chocolate one.

The possibilities are endless, in a very good way.

I'm not usually a big biscuit eater (and these are only the fifth biscuit recipe to make it onto the blog!) but I think these will definitely be appearing again in our household.

How do you say "I'm thinking of you" (other than saying the words...)? 

Tweet

Pin It