This melt-in-your-mouth Thumbprint Mincemeat Cookie recipe uses homemade fruit mincemeat to bring a burst of festive flavor and a fun new twist to your Christmas cookie platter.
Do you have a favorite Christmas cookie?
Do you go for the classics, maybe a frosted sugar cookie or gingerbread?
Or, do you reach for whatever you don’t recognize, and start out on a sweet Christmas adventure?
Tim loves anything that looks chocolate. However, if he mistakes a dark gingerbread cookie for chocolate, well, it’s a fun surprise.
I love finding things that I don’t recognize and being surprised by the flavors that result.
Our Thumbprint Mincemeat Cookie Recipe
Speaking of surprises, this thumbprint mince meat cookie recipe brings quite a surprise to your cookie platter.
Not your classic jam-filled thumbprints, these melt-in-your-mouth thumbprint cookies are filled with that sweet, spiced, (and slightly boozy) homemade mincemeat.
After softening in liquor, the dried fruit pieces in the mincemeat are soft enough to stand in for jam in these cookies.
And, their sweet, spiced flavor gives the cookies a unique, holiday flair.
How to serve mincemeat cookies
Honestly, we loved these dunked in a steaming cup of coffee. But, they’d be just as good dipped in hot chocolate or cold milk.
Not that you have to dunk them. Because these cookies have a delightful melt-in-your-mouth texture. They have a slight crispness on the outside that melts away as you bite into them.
Then look out, because you’ll be craving another and another!
The light and crumbly cookie, paired with the warming and intensely flavorful, sweet mince mixture, makes these a winning cookie combination.
You know, these would make a great way to re-introduce (or introduce) your family to British mincemeat. (You don’t even have to tell them that’s what you filled the cookies with. We won’t tell!)
If you’re looking for other recipes to use up some of your homemade mincemeat, be sure to check out our mini mincemeat pies and our mince muffins (Christmas muffins)! Both are sure to be winners for those who love the spiced fruit flavors of fruit mincemeat.
Thumbprint Mincemeat Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ c (1 stick) salted butter, softened
- ¼ c brown sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- ½ tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 c unbleached all-purpose flour
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1/8 tsp baking soda
- 2 Tbsp sugar (to coat the cookie dough)
- 1/3 c mincemeat (for topping)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350F.
- In a large bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar, egg yolk, and vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, mix together flour, salt, and baking soda. Add to wet ingredients and mix until a smooth dough forms. (The dough may seem a bit dry at first, just keep mixing until everything is moistened and holds together nicely.)
- Roll the dough into 1” balls.
- Place 2 Tbsp white sugar into a small bowl and coat each ball of dough in sugar. Place the sugared dough balls 1” apart on an un-greased baking sheet.
- Press your thumb into each ball to create an indent in the center of the cookies.
- Bake for 10 minutes.
- Remove the cookies from the oven and, while the cookies are still hot, top each cookie with approximately 1 tsp of mincemeat.
- After the cookies have had 5-10 minutes to cool on the baking sheet, remove them from the baking sheet to cool completely on a wire rack. Once cool, store in an airtight container.
This is one of the recipes from the early days of Curious Cuisiniere. We’ve updated our pictures since we first shared them, but we’ve left some originals here, in case you’ve found us in the past and are looking for that old, familiar image.
If you liked this recipe, here are some similar dishes you may enjoy!
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Kahk (Egyptian Eid Cookies)
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Sarah founded Curious in 2010 as a way to save her recipe creations and share culinary experiences. Her love for cultural cuisines was instilled early by her French Canadian Grandmother. Her experience in the kitchen and in recipe development comes from over 10 years working in professional kitchens. She has traveled extensively and enjoys bringing the flavors of her travels back to create easy-to-make recipes.
Jean finley1
Wednesday 19th of December 2018
Cookie dough spread together when thumb print formed dough was baked. Crisp flat cookies. Unable to use mincemeat.
Sarah Ozimek
Thursday 20th of December 2018
Hi Jean, We're sorry you had problems with these cookies. We re-tested the cookies today because this seemed to be a common problem and we have found what went wrong. The brown sugar goes into the dough, but the white sugar is for rolling the cookie dough before thumb-printing and baking. If you put the white sugar in the dough, it would be too much moisture in the dough and cause them to spread and crisp. We're sorry that the instructions were not more clear. We have updated the recipe instructions, which should help. Hopefully you have a chance to try these cookies again!
Georgette Chapek
Tuesday 27th of November 2018
The cookies flatten out, sounded great,. Too bad it didn’t work out.
Sarah Ozimek
Thursday 20th of December 2018
Hi Georgette, Please see our response to Jean's comment above. We have a good idea what went wrong, and we have updated the recipe instructions to be more clear. We hope you have a chance to try these again!
Sarah Ozimek
Friday 7th of December 2018
Hi Georgette, We're sorry the cookies didn't work out for you. We'll be re-testing them here soon and get an answer for you as to what went wrong.
Laura Dembowski
Monday 15th of December 2014
Cute idea!