Buttery thumbprint cookies filled with a sweet, slightly boozy icing and dusted with nutmeg. These festive Eggnog Thumbprint Cookies should be on your holiday baking list!
Eggnog Thumbprint Cookies are the bomb (that’s right kids, Mom just said “the bomb”, deal with it). Always one of the first cookies to disappear from my Christmas cookie trays. Festive, sweet, and a bit boozy; always a good thing at this time of year.
I stumbled across this one on Allrecipes years ago and we look forward to them every Christmas.
This thumbprint cookie dough is the best I’ve ever made but it’s the icing that really puts these cookies over the top. It includes a little Captain Morgan Spiced Rum but any rum you’ve got on hand will do the trick. I’m not a fan of drinks made with rum in general but have it on hand for certain of our friends who love the stuff (you know who you are). It’s also excellent for baking as I’ve found with this recipe.
If you don’t want to pick up a bottle of rum, feel free to substitute rum extract. See the recipe card at the end of this post for the details.
Filling the Eggnog Thumbprints
I like to spoon the icing into a disposable piping bag fitted with a decorative tip to fill the Eggnog Thumbprint Cookies with icing. This is about as fancy as I ever get with decorating baked goods but I have to say, it does add a nice touch.
Don’t have any pastry bags on hand? You can put the icing in a regular plastic sandwich bag and snip the bottom corner to use as a homemade pastry bag or just spoon it right on to the cookies.
The final touch is a dusting of nutmeg. Don’t skip this step! It adds that unique holiday flavor and completes the cookies in a delicious way.
These Eggnog Thumbprint Cookies are so pretty on Christmas cookie trays and everyone I know that has tried them has fallen in love.
We so look forward to these cookies every year!
They have Christmas written all over them.
More Holiday Baking Ideas
Chewy Iced Molasses Cookies
Chocolate Peppermint Crinkles
Butterscotch Gingerbread Cookies
Easy Toffee Candy
Happy baking!
Eggnog Thumbprints
Ingredients
For the Cookies
- ¾ cup butter, softened
- ½ cup granulated white sugar
- ¼ cup packed brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
For the Icing
- ¼ cup butter, softened
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1 tablespoon Captain Morgan Spiced Rum, (see recipe note for substitution)
- ground nutmeg,, as needed
Instructions
For the Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a large bowl, use an electric hand mixer to cream together ¾ cup butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, combine flour and salt. Beat into the creamed mixture just till slightly combined. Finish by mixing with a wooden spoon to form a soft dough.
- Roll dough into 1- to 1-inch balls and place 2-inches apart on baking sheets lined with a Silpat baking mat or parchment paper. Make an indentation in the center of each cookie using your thumb or index finger.
- Bake for 12 minutes in preheated oven. Remove from oven and allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for about 3 minutes then transfer a rack to cool completely.
For the Icing
- In a small bowl, use an electric hand mixer to combine ¼ cup butter, confectioners' sugar, and rum. Transfer icing to a pastry bag with a decorative tip and pipe icing on to completely cooled cookies. Sprinkle with nutmeg. Let stand until set before storing in an airtight container.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated using generic ingredients, and is an estimate not a guarantee. For more accurate results, please refer to the labels on your ingredients at home.
This post was originally published on December 9, 2011. It has been updated with new images and a video.
Adapted from Allrecipes
if you have people who don’t like the rum in them can you use eggnog instead for the icing and cookies themselves instead?
The amount of eggnog you would have to add to achieve any flavor would throw off the consistency. An extract is a better way to add a similar flavor.
I love how these cookies look and seems to be easy to make. The problem is that I don’t like rum. Do you think I could use maple extract or another extract in the place of the rum? Thanks for the recipe.
Hi Barbara. Take a look at the Notes section of the recipe card for my suggestions on this.