Recipe from Chad Robertson
Adapted by Julia Moskin
- Total Time
- 1 hour
- Rating
- 4(169)
- Notes
- Read community notes
You can use any type of toasted nut or whole-grain flour in this recipe, generating infinite possibilities. Cashews, pumpkin seeds, pistachios, hazelnuts; barley, brown rice or oat flour; any jam you like. We chose pecans and rye flour, aiming at a cookie with a little salt and tang. —Julia Moskin
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Ingredients
Yield:About 4 dozen cookies
- 1½cups pecans (6½ ounces)
- 1½cups dark rye flour (6½ ounces)
- ⅔cup granulated sugar (4½ ounces)
- ¼teaspoon fine sea salt
- 9tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces and softened at room temperature
- Jam, marmalade or lemon curd, for filling
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Preparation
Step
See AlsoChocolate Hazelnut Cookies RecipeCrisp Smashed Potatoes With Fried Onions and Parsley RecipeExcellent White Bread RecipeThe New York Times Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe1
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spread pecans on a baking sheet and toast until golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool completely. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or nonstick baking mats.
Step
2
In a food processor fitted with the metal blade, combine nuts, flour, sugar and salt and pulse until very finely ground, about 1 minute. Transfer to a large bowl and add butter by hand, a few pieces at a time, massaging butter into dry ingredients until it forms a shaggy dough. (If dough seems dry and is not coming together, work in water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until it does.)
Step
3
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and bring it together with your hands. Have a bowl of warm water at hand nearby. Divide dough in half, dip your hands in water and roll each lump into a thin log, about 15 inches long and ½ inch across. Cut each log into ½-inch slices and roll each slice into a ball, dipping hands in water as needed to prevent dough from sticking. Transfer balls to prepared pans, spacing them about ½ inch apart.
Step
4
Using your pinkie or the rounded end of a small wooden spoon, press into the top of each ball to make a well. As you press, use your other hand to hold the ball and shape it around the finger or handle into a small, flat-bottomed cup. The goal is to give the dough an even thickness throughout the cookie. Place pans in refrigerator and chill cookies for at least 30 minutes or up to 12 hours.
Step
5
Bake cookies for 10 to 12 minutes, rotating baking sheets halfway through to ensure even browning, until cookies are golden around the edges.
Step
6
Remove baking sheets from oven and let cookies cool completely. (The recipe can be made up to this point 3 days ahead and stored in an airtight container.) When ready to serve (up to 8 hours ahead of time), use a pastry bag or a small spoon to fill each well with jam, marmalade or preserves.
Ratings
4
out of 5
169
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Cooking Notes
Catherine DiNardo
Made these using oats ground in a Vitamix to make the flour and with toasted cashews. Filled with homemade concord grape jelly. A big hit!!
Catherine DiNardo
Also made them again, using the same not/oat ingredients but this time filled with Nutella -- delicious addition to my holiday cookie platter.
KB
Adding a couple tablespoons of water to the dough makes it more pliable. I made balls directly from the bowl, and filled them with jam before baking. They held their shape reasonably well.
Kim
No need to make a log and cut it—just make little balls straight from the bowl. Made mine with toasted hazelnuts. Delicious.
kaitlin
Delicious! A shortbread consistency and just the right amount of sweet. I used walnuts and cashews along with oat flour. After adding the butter I needed a bit more flour to achieve the shaggy dough. Refrigerated for a few hours, cooked for about 16 min. Filled with a homemade plum cardamom jam. Will make again!
Shauna B
2nd time I made these I beat butter in stand mixer then added dry ingredients- much better consistency than rubbing butter in by hand. And yes, skip the logs, just make balls.
Mary Ann
I made these with whole wheat flour and non-toasted pecans. And after reading the notes from other readers and thinking about the recipe, I added an egg. I filled some of the thumbprints with Nutella, some with semi-sweet chocolate chips, and some with bittersweet chocolate chunks. I skipped the chilling phase.All the cookies held their shape quite well, and were drop-dead fabulous tasting! I'll be making them quite often!!!
Suzanne Hayes
I used rice flour and pistachios. Taste is great, but they completely fell apart into crumbles after baking. Need to eat them with a spoon.
Jessica
I love these, and sub confectioner's sugar for the granulated. My favorite is the rye and pecan version, followed by rye and 50/50 pecans and cacao nibs!
LLN
9 tsp butter =127.57 g
Mel Glen
I used 1 1/2 cup rye flour, 1/2 cup ground walnuts, 1/2 cup ground hazelnuts. I added monk fruit powder 1/2 teaspoon, 1/3 cup sugar, 1/8 teaspoon pink Himalayan salt, 3/4 cup butter.The result was a delicious cookie containing not too much sugar. I will try this again with pecans.
meredith
Some of these “melted” in the oven, while others were perfect. Which is more likely the culprit: I sufficiently fine but/flour mixture, or insufficient feeezing? I skimped a bit on both, my blender didn’t like grinding these fine ingredients.. I used whole wheat pastry flour and pecans.
Anne
I didn't crunch the pecans til finely. The little chunks were nice in the cookie. Only 4 tablespoons of butter since nuts contain fat but added one egg as the reviews said the cookies spread. No spread here, delicious cookies and will make again.
kaitlin
Delicious! A shortbread consistency and just the right amount of sweet. I used walnuts and cashews along with oat flour. After adding the butter I needed a bit more flour to achieve the shaggy dough. Refrigerated for a few hours, cooked for about 16 min. Filled with a homemade plum cardamom jam. Will make again!
KB
Adding a couple tablespoons of water to the dough makes it more pliable. I made balls directly from the bowl, and filled them with jam before baking. They held their shape reasonably well.
Kim
No need to make a log and cut it—just make little balls straight from the bowl. Made mine with toasted hazelnuts. Delicious.
CSN
Delicious. I think the shape problem others experienced (as I did) might have been a function of the amount of butter. I ended up dusting them with a generous amount of rye flour for shaping which helped. Next time I might use 1-2 T less butter to see how that works. I also just tried to depress the hollow for the jelly after it came out of the oven and had cooled for a little bit.
Sharon
What temperature should these cookies be baked at?
Gael
350 degrees
yusuf
Mine did not hold their shape at all either...
Dana
The flavor of these is fantastic. I love the toasted pecans and the whole-grain flour. However, mine did not hold their shape at all when baked — even after chilling the cup-shaped dough in the freezer overnight and baking them direct from frozen. So instead of thumbprints, I have some flat discs that look a little sad without jam but are delicious on their own.
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