Chocolate Sprinkle Thumbprint Cookies
Raise your hand if ever in your life you have struggled with a recipe. Our hand is waaaaaay up there (well, as high up as it can get when you’re only 5’1). Sometimes it’s cupcake batter that runneth over and spills all over the inside of the oven. Sometimes it’s a cake that ends up looking like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Sometimes it’s an experiment gone terribly (and inedible-y) awry. Sometimes it’s trying to recreate a favorite treat from a restaurant or bakery and you just.can’t.get.it.right. These have all happened to us (some, many times over!), but today, we're focusing on that last one – recreating a favorite treat. Here in Pittsburgh, Giant Eagle is our large supermarket chain, and their bakery sells the most addicting cookies ever – Chocolate Thumbprints with Sprinkles.
These are, without question, our Chief Culinary Consultant’s favorite store-bought cookie and he has done a fabulous job of getting us completely addicted to them. Approximately one out of every two times we wander into the grocery store, we wander out with a dozen of those cookies. Then, we promptly polish them off in less time than we care to admit. For the longest time, we have been trying to recreate those little devils, and we've finally got something close!
The cookies from Giant Eagle are not crispy, but they’re not soft or chewy either; rather, they’re very tender. They crumble a little bit when you bite into them, but then they have some give. The cookie is only the first part of the equation; once we get past that part, it’s figuring out the frosting. To be quite honest, it tastes pretty much like chocolate frosting from a can, which normally we're all “bleh” about, but oh our, on these cookies… we want to swim in it. Turns out, it’s pretty darn difficult to try to make frosting from scratch that tastes like frosting from a can. Shocking, right? We think that’s probably a good thing, but doesn’t make it any easier!
We have gone through no less than four or five iterations of these cookies, two batches of which needed to be thrown out when experiments went awry! We've played with different ingredients, ratios, and mixing methods and have taken copious amounts of notes on pretty much every thumbprint recipe known to man.
These babies are our pseudo-final (but-still-a-work-in-progress) version of the ever-famous Giant Eagle Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies. They are close, but we're dying to get it as close to exact as possible. The recipe, of course, is a “Giant Eagle bakery secret” so we're on our own! If we make any changes to the recipe below in the future, we'll add a date and an edit note so you know what’s been changed.
What recipes have left you stumped? Or scrubbing your kitchen from top to bottom? ;-)
One year ago: Fresh Strawberry Pie
Chocolate Sprinkle Thumbprint Cookies
Yield: 24 to 36 cookies, depending on size These straightforward chocolate cookies are ready to eat in 30 minutes!For the Cookies:
- 2½ cups (312.5 g) all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) salt
- 1 cup (227 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup (120 g) powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- Chocolate sprinkles
For the Chocolate Icing:
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1½ cups (180 g) powdered sugar
- ⅓ cup (28.67 g) Dutch-process cocoa powder
- 4 tablespoons whole milk
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) vanilla extract
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour and salt; set aside. Pour the chocolate sprinkles into a small bowl; set aside.
- Using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream together the butter, powdered sugar and vanilla extract until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture. Once it is mostly incorporated, slowly increase the speed back to medium-high and beat for another minute or so until a dough forms.
- Scoop out a tablespoon of dough, roll it into a ball, and then roll it in the chocolate sprinkles and place it on the baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough, spacing your cookies about 1½ inches apart on the baking sheet. Make a slight indentation with your thumb (or the back of a melon baller - our favorite tool for this task) on the tops of all the cookies. Bake for 10 minutes, then make a deeper indentation in the middle, and bake for an additional 8 minutes. The cookies should not brown much at all around the edges. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Meanwhile, make the chocolate icing for the filling. Beat the butter with an electric mixer on medium-high speed for 2 to 3 minutes, or until light and creamy. Reduce speed to low, add the powdered sugar and cocoa powder and mix until combined, then increase the speed to medium and beat until smooth. Add the milk and the vanilla extract and beat until light and fluffy. Add more powdered sugar or milk to achieve the desired consistency.
- Once the cookies are cool, pipe some frosting into the middle of each cookie (or you can spoon it in). Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Notes
Nutritional values are based on one large cookie
- Yield: 24 to 36 cookies, depending on size
- Prep: 10 minutes
- Cook: 18 minutes
- Total: 30 minutes
Ingredients
For the Cookies:
- 2½ cups ( 312.5 g ) all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon ( 0.5 teaspoon ) salt
- 1 cup ( 227 g ) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup ( 120 g ) powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- Chocolate sprinkles
For the Chocolate Icing:
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1½ cups ( 180 g ) powdered sugar
- ⅓ cup ( 28.67 g ) Dutch-process cocoa powder
- 4 tablespoons whole milk
- ½ teaspoon ( 0.5 teaspoon ) vanilla extract
Method
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour and salt; set aside. Pour the chocolate sprinkles into a small bowl; set aside.
- Using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream together the butter, powdered sugar and vanilla extract until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture. Once it is mostly incorporated, slowly increase the speed back to medium-high and beat for another minute or so until a dough forms.
- Scoop out a tablespoon of dough, roll it into a ball, and then roll it in the chocolate sprinkles and place it on the baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough, spacing your cookies about 1½ inches apart on the baking sheet. Make a slight indentation with your thumb (or the back of a melon baller - our favorite tool for this task) on the tops of all the cookies. Bake for 10 minutes, then make a deeper indentation in the middle, and bake for an additional 8 minutes. The cookies should not brown much at all around the edges. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Meanwhile, make the chocolate icing for the filling. Beat the butter with an electric mixer on medium-high speed for 2 to 3 minutes, or until light and creamy. Reduce speed to low, add the powdered sugar and cocoa powder and mix until combined, then increase the speed to medium and beat until smooth. Add the milk and the vanilla extract and beat until light and fluffy. Add more powdered sugar or milk to achieve the desired consistency.
- Once the cookies are cool, pipe some frosting into the middle of each cookie (or you can spoon it in). Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
