These quick and easy chocolate thumbprint cookies with ganache are made from scratch. They are crispy on the outside but soft and tender on the inside. You can also fill them with peppermint or candy canes for a festive touch. No chilling required.
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These cookies are considered to be one of those classics that everyone should have in their recipe collection. I make these a lot during the Christmas holiday season for parties and even to give to family and friends as a wonderful homemade gift. Check out more of my Easy Homemade Christmas Gift Ideas (food) too. Best of all, they are quick and easy to make and require no chilling. These are just as delicious as my Peanut Butter and Jelly Thumbprint Cookies and Jam Thumbprint Cookies as well as these Easy Peanut Butter Blossoms.
These cookies are loaded with CHOCOLATE!
There is cocoa in the cookie dough and once they are baked, they are filled with rich and creamy chocolate ganache.
If you don't want to fill with ganache, you should check out this list for other filling ideas...
These classic chocolate thumbprint cookies can be filled with a wide range of FILLINGS:
- Nuts (peanuts, cashews, almonds, pecans, walnuts e.t.c)
- Pretzels
- Hershey's kisses- They come in so many flavors now.
- Candies (m&m, hard rock candy, Hershey's chocolate Kisses e.t.c)
- Chocolate chips (dark, milk, white, toffee chips, peanut butter chips, peppermint chips)
- Sprinkles
- Dried cranberries and raisins
- Berries (maraschino cherries, raspberries, strawberries e.t.c)
- Salted caramel sauce
- Jams and preserves
- Nutella or any other hazelnut spread.
- Peanut butter
- Melted chocolate (dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate)
- Frosting
They are ADDICTIVE and meant for all the peanut butter lovers out there!
But anyways, let's get back to these chocolate thumbprints...
I like to roll them in granulated sugar, which truly results in the BEST chocolate thumbprint cookies ever!
They are CRISPY on the outside but SOFT and CHEWY on the inside.
I haven't seen many chocolate thumbprint cookie recipes that require this step but I HIGHLY recommend you do this since that's what takes these cookies to a whole new level!
Since Christmas is about 2 months away, I made some chocolate peppermint thumbprint cookies by filling them with melted peppermint chocolate and topping them off with peppermint chips.
They have the perfect BALANCE of chocolate and mint flavor and are so PRETTY!
Storage
- Refrigerate-
- Freeze-
- Room temperature- not more than 5-6 hours because of the ganache filling.
- Make ahead-
More Easy Chocolate Cookies
- Chocolate Sugar Cookies
- Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies
- Triple Chocolate Cookies
- Chocolate Cake Mix Cookies
- Chocolate Cherry Cookies (Black Forest Cookies)
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
Recipe
Easy Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies (Ganache)
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Ingredients
Cookie dough
- 3 cups All-purpose flour
- 1 cup Cocoa powder
- 2 cups Granulated
- 1 cup Butter Unsalted, Room temperature
- ½ teaspoon Baking powder
- ½ teaspoon Baking soda
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 2 teaspoon Vanilla extract
- 2 Eggs Large, Room temperature
- 1 cup Additional granulated sugar For rolling cookie dough balls
Ganache filling
- 1 cup Chocolate chips Semisweet
- 1 cup Heavy cream
Decoration
- ½ cup Chocolate Roughly chopped, Semisweet
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until mixture is light and fluffy.
- Add eggs and vanilla extract and mix again.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda.
- Dump the dry ingredient mixture into the wet mixture and mix everything until just combined.
- Scoop out small portions of the dough and make little balls roll them in a bowl of granulated sugar.
- Place cookies on a cookie tray lined with parchment paper and press your thumb in the center to make indentations.
- Bake at 350 degrees F for about 12-15 minutes.
- Note: When you remove the cookies from the oven, you will notice the indentations are not that deep anymore. Just press the back of a wooden spoon or the round bottom of a measuring spoon into the center again. You must do this quickly before the cookies have a chance to cool down.
- While the cookies are cooling, prepare chocolate ganache by heating heavy cream and chocolate chips in a nonstick saucepan over medium heat. When the mixture is smooth and glossy, let it cool down and thicken a bit.
- Then, fill each thumbprint cookie with ganache and decorate with roughly chopped chocolate. Enjoy.
Notes
- All ingredients must be at room temperature to allow even blending and mixing.
- Don't over-bake cookies because that cause them to be dry.
- More filling options include: Peanut butter, Nutella, Biscoff, caramel sauce, Hersey's kisses, jams and preserves.
- If the cookie dough is too crumbly, add a little water to help bring it together. If it's too sticky, making it hard to roll balls, chill in fridge for 30-40 minutes.
- Cookies can be rolled in powdered sugar to create a crackly appearance. They can also be rolled in green and red sanding sugar or sprinkles for a festive touch.
- To make Peppermint chocolate thumbprint cookies, melt 3 peppermint chocolate bars and and spoon a small amount in the center of each cookie and top it off with peppermint chocolate bits.
- Read additional tips and variations above.
- Leftovers can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Nutrition
An automated tool is used to calculate the nutritional information. As such, I cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information provided for any recipe on this site.
Shabs
Hey Abeer , great looking pics , I love your idea for toppings . My kids love to make the thumb print on the cookies whenever I make them .
Angie
Those look so CUTE!
Eftychia
Where are you? WE MISS YOU!!
thoma
now pl come out of your hiding like a good girl...we've all lost to you...
suzy
this looks so tasty abeer. i am going to try this recipe for the holidays.
Charissa
Hey there! How are you doing? It's been too long since I've been to your site...and as always, everything looks mouthwatering and creative!
You always amaze me!
Beth
Love it! Love all of the colors and your artful arrangements! I make thumbprint cookies at work frequently, and I never get tired of them. Never tried chocolate ones though - will have to do that!
Abeer Rizvi
Sorry I was playing around with this recipe last night because I have found ways to make it even better and choco-licious! I was updating the new changes. It's not 2 cups. It's 1 cup butter now.