For my last 2 cookie recipes in my 12 Cookies of Christmas series, I want to try to re-create some of my husband’s family recipes. No one seems to have these ones on hand so I am going based upon his description. For the Walnut Raspberry Thumbprint cookie, he described a fluffy cookie, rolled in Walnut pieces with a nest in the middle for some raspberry jam.

Walnut Raspberry Thumbprint Cookie Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup butter (salted, softened)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs, separated

1 cup chopped walnuts

Walnut Raspberry Jam Thumbprint Method:

Cream together butter and brown sugar. Add vanilla and egg yolks – beat in. Gradually mix in flour – beat. Refrigerate dough for 1-2 hours until workable.

Prepare pans with parchment paper.

Take tablespoons of dough and roll into balls. Dip tops of balls of dough in egg white and then walnuts. Place dough on prepared cookie sheet, then indent the middle of the dough with a knuckle of index finger. Arrange a few more walnuts around the edge of the cookie if there are bare spots.

Bake cookies in 350 degree F oven for 12 minutes.

Leave cookies on parchment lined cookie sheets, fill thumbprints with raspberry jam. Return cookie trays to oven for 10 more minutes.

This recipe yields big soft cookies that rise up because of the eggs. The egg white dip helps the walnuts to stick to the cookie dough. There is a lot of working with the dough in my hands in this recipe. If I had to do it again, I think I would use an egg free shortbread dough. I might also just sprinkle walnuts on flat rounds of dough instead of rolling the dough in the walnuts. I know that’s not the point of the cookie. It’s supposed to look like a birdsnest! But I think a dryer, flatter cookie might be nicer with the raspberry jam. I also found it easier to work with smaller pieces of cookie dough – 1 tsp size, as opposed to 1 tbsp.

The last tray of cookies as always turned out the best. The cookies were smaller and rounder, the walnuts were more finely ground/chopped and the cookies just a little more browned.

My husband says they aren’t the cookies his mom used to make at all, but they keep disappearing. Makes about 36.