Christmas Cookie Series #3: Thumbprint cookies

I am back in the kitchen baking up my favorite Christmas time cookies. 

I took the week...okay, 2 weeks off but I am getting my act together and whipping a few batches to get us caught up. 

Has anyone ever had the Ghiradelli chocolate filled thumbprint cookies? They are delicious and I cannot find the boxed mix ANYWHERE! It is super depressing.

I figured, if I can't find the mix anywhere, I'll just have to try to whip up my own batch.

So, today I am sharing these little chocolate filled thumbprint cookies. They are so easy to make and will make a great addition to your Christmas cookie platters.

Ingredients
makes approx. 2 dozen
original recipe here

2 sticks salted butter, room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
teeny tiny, pinch of salt
2 1/2 cups flour

chocolate filling
1/2 bag of good quality, milk chocolate chips
4 tbs unsalted butter
*1 tsp light corn syrup

Preheat oven to 350
In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together softened butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and salt. Mix for 2 minutes on medium/high speed. Slowly add in flour and mix on medium speed until well combined.

Take a tablespoon size of dough and roll into a ball. Place dough balls 1 inch apart on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes, remove from the oven and press *thumb* into the center of the dough to make an indentation. Place the cookies back in the oven for another 6-8 minutes, until the edges are light brown. Remove from the oven and place cookies on cooling rack.

 Once your cookies have cooled, make your chocolate filling. Place chocolate chips, butter, and corn syrup in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave in 30 second increments, stirring each time, until your chocolate is melted and smooth. Carefully fill your cookies with the melted chocolate.

 *I use the back of a teaspoon to make my "thumb" print. I don't know about you, but sticking my finger into a hot cookie and burning the crap out of it just doesn't sound enjoyable. But if you're into that kind of thing, then by all means, go ahead and stick your finger into the lava cookie

* I made my chocolate filling sans corn syrup because I didn't want to buy a giant bottle to only use a tsp of it. So I opted out of it just added extra butter to my chocolate to help smooth it out and keep it runny. I probably used an extra tbs of butter. I think next time I will actually buy the corn syrup. The butter just made the chocolate a tad too...buttery and rich.

I hope you guys enjoy these

 and if you've missed my past posts you can check them out here.