Sunday, May 15, 2005

Cheesecake Thumbprints

Cheesecake Thumbprints (Adapted from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook)

For the cheesecake filling

4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 large egg yolk
1 1/2 teaspoons sour cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

For the cookie dough

16 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg yolk
2 cups all-purpose flour

To prepare cheesecake filling

In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until light and fluffy. Beat in sugar and salt until smooth. Mix in egg yolk, sour cream and vanilla - cover and place into the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

To prepare the cookie dough

In a large mixing bowl, beat together butter, sugar and salt until creamy and combined. Mix in egg yolk until incorporated. Gradually add flour and mix just until combined.

Scoop out level tablespoons worth of the dough and roll into balls. Place balls onto parchment-lined baking sheets. Using the handle end of a thick wooden spoon, lightly dipped in flour, make an indentation in the center of each ball.

Place into the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and carefully use your thumb (or the end of the same wooden spoon) to press the middle of the cookies back down, remaking the indentations. Place cookies back into the oven, rotating them from their original position, and continue to bake until slightly golden around the edges, about 7 minutes.

Remove cookies from the oven and fill the indentations with the cheesecake filling using a teaspoon. Place back into the oven and bake for 7 more minutes. Remove from the oven and transfer cookies to a wire rack to cook completely. When cool, place cookies into the refrigerator to chill before serving.

Makes about 30 cookies.

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36 comments:

  1. What a wonderful cookie.  High on my "to do" list.Can I get a job where Jeff works?

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    1. My mom used to make these and color the icing for Xmas...some red and some green...............I loved them....cant wait to make them,,

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  2. I made these cookies the other day and they were great. I added strawberry and blueberry jam to mine first and then put the cheesecake topping on top. Yumm! Thanks again for posting another great recipe.

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    1. Where did u add the strawberry and blueberry??? In the dough or in the thumbprint under the cheesecake mixture??

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    2. I was thinking fruit on top like on cheesecake would be fantatsic!

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    3. I did that as well, using strawberry preserves...delicious!

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  3. Carole - hee hee! A lot of people ask me that :-)

    Rachael - Fantastic! Glad you liked them... I love the idea of sneaking in a hidden jam layer underneath the cheesecake batter!

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  4. Thanks for the recipe, i tried this today and it was great !!!

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  5. Jin - Glad to hear! Thanks for the feedback.

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  6. Hi Joe! I wanted to try making these tonight - I need to put together a treat bag for DBF's work tomorrow. Yours look so perfect - I checked out photos of these cookies on a few other blogs and they weren't so pretty - the cheesecake didn't seem to stay in a nice circle in the center like yours did. Any special tips for making them as aesthetically pleasing as yours? :)

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  7. Elisabeth - It has been quite some time since I made these, but I think what helped contain that filling in the center is how defined you make the thumbprint mark during the baking process.

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  8. Perfect - I can do that! Thank you!

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  9. My cookies came out very brown and crumbly. Even though in the later batches I had them less in the oven, they weren't nice and yellow as yours. Lastly they were so crumbly! I followed your recipe to a tee- any thoughts?

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  10. Shari - Sounds like your oven may be running a bit hot? Have you had it calibrated or use an oven thermometer?

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  11. I made these today. They are so good and simple to make. The only thing I did different is chilled the dough before baking it off and in some of the cookies I added some blackberry jam and others some mini chocolate chips.

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  12. I made these today. Very easy to make. :) Thanks for sharing.

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  13. Oh my! I must make these soon! Delicious!!

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  14. I made these today. I followed your recipe to a T. The cookies turned out crumbly, despite my best efforts. I'm thinking the dough started out too dry from the get-go. Any suggestions? I literally followed it step by step. The only alteration I made was using Splenda instead of regular sugar, but I really don't think that could mess it up as much as I did. HELP.

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  15. TDG - Well, sugar will add moisture to the dough and using all splenda will definitely change the consistency of the dough.

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    1. thank you. learning something new every day. thanks!!

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  16. I made these cookies, followed the recipe exactly. The cheesecake part turned out wonderfully...the cookie however...I couldn't get the dough to bind until I added about a third cup of water and after I baked them (again, exactly as the recipe directed) they were very hard, dry and frankly bland. I'm wondering if the cookies might have been better off with another egg? Or perhaps more butter and sugar? Suggestions...? Other than the actual cookie, these would have been absolutely fantastic cookies!

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  17. Bailey - How did you measure the flour? Sounds like there may have been too much added.

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  18. I made these cookies and they were amazing! I'm actually about to make them again but add pumpkin for fall!

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  19. I made my cookie pumpkin. Sooo good.

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  20. I followed the recipe exactely as well and I think they had WAY too much flour in them. They were really dry and crumbly. I was hoping for a soft, chewy cookie. The cream cheese center was amazing though!

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  21. I just used a store bought sugar cookie and your cheesecake recipe and it turned out really well! And less mess and time :-)

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  22. Here it is Thanksgiving day and I'm mKING THE COOKIES AND SO FAR SO GOOD. I AM GOING TO PUT SUM JAM IN IT.

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  23. These were so good!

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  24. We just made these and they were excellent. I added a bit more sugar and they reminded me of shortbread cookies- yummy.

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  25. Just made these. Based on previous comments I used sugar cookie dough. I also added a cherry to the top.
    They are pretty good and look great!

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  26. These look 'TO DIE FOR' and I can't wait to make them! Love the doxies! :)

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  27. i just made these today and i was reading on here how alot of you ended up with crumbly cookies. mine turned out great i followed the recipie to the T except i buttered the bottom of my cookie sheet instead of using parchment paper added just a little bit of moisture to them!!!

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  28. I'm starting to bake for my daughter's wedding June 15th. Does anyone know how these freeze? Would like to put them in the freezer until the wedding?

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  29. I'm having the same problem with the crumbly dough and like many other readers, followed the recipe exactly. The 'dough' was not doughy whatsoever, and was powdery. I kneaded it when I formed the balls, but I still couldn't make the first indent without the entire ball crumbling. So disappointing.

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  30. Anon - Sounds like you may have used too much flour. How did you measure it?

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  31. For those having issues, and I'm not being a smarta$$ but you know it calls for 1 cup of butter, right? 1 cup of butter and 2 cups of flours should not be crumbly.

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