hazelnut thumprint cookies

Fun Prints...

Thumprint cookies look cute and are yum...they are also very versatile, you can fill them with any filling of your liking.. I especially like the soft crumbly cookie...reminded me of the cookies we used to get in lebanese bakeries....
the recipe is also very very simple and you can have a batch of cookies ready with hardly any fuss.
Its a classic hershey's recipe so you can't go wrong with it...

Ingredients:

chocolate ganache or nutella
1/3 cup Cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped hazelnuts (or any other nut)
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 egg
1/2 cup butter or margarine
2/3 cup sugar

Method:

1. Beat butter, sugar, egg yolk, milk and vanilla in medium bowl until fluffy. Stir together flour, cocoa and salt; gradually add to butter mixture, beating until blended. Refrigerate dough at least 1 hour or until firm enough to handle.

2. Heat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease cookie sheet or line with parchment paper. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. With fork, beat egg white slightly. Dip each ball into egg white; roll in nuts. Place on prepared cookie sheet. Press thumb gently in center of each cookie.

3. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until set.

Remove cookies from cookie sheet to wire rack; cool 5 minutes. Spoon about 1/4 teaspoon ganache into each thumbprint.

Cool completely.

makes about 24 cookies

I tried the same recipe by substituting

 1/3 cup of ground almond and sesame seeds instead of the cocoa powder to make some almond cookies, and added a little bit of almond essence.. and got really nice chewy almond cookies.