Cinnamon Chocolate Thumbprints

At the beginning of December I complained that November's posts were way too brown and promised all things colorful and sparkly.  Looking back on December, you probably needed sunglasses to view most of them. Some bright and sparkly and some just loud and tacky. 


So it's a new year and I want it to be all about balance. Starting now. 


These cookies are brown with a splash of color. 

They also have smaller amounts of butter and sugar, also New Year appropriate since many people are all about reducing in January to compensate for holiday indulgences.



I found these cookies in a little Christmas baking book I picked up here in Germany last year. The cookies were titled Cinnamon Balls and were filled with white chocolate. I think they are more thumbprints than ball cookies. I had some leftover milk chocolate to use up so I swapped it for the white they used in the book. I know it's a bit lame to keep baking out of a Christmas cookbook after the fact but I've saved a few un-Christmassy recipes in this book for January.


The first batch I made came out way to dry so I have made some adjustments.

Cinnamon Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies

Adapted from Zimtkugeln recipe from Weihnachts-Backen, Verlag Zabert Sandmann München 2008

I love this bowl I bought in the Maldives. It has cinnamon sticks embedded in the wood and smells amazing.

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg yolk

1/2 cup sour cream

2 cups AP flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

6 ounces milk chocolate chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line 2 baking trays with baking paper.

Cream together the butter and sugar.

Add the egg yolk and then the sour cream, mixing throughly after each  addition.

In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

Add the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar mixture and mix until blended. Roll the dough into a big ball.

Using a teaspoon or a cookie scoop, one at a time, take a piece out of the dough and roll into a ball.

Place it on the cookie sheet and flatten a bit with the heel of your hand. Using your thumb or the handle of a wooden spoon, create and indentation in the middle.

Bake for about 15 minutes or until they brown slightly.

When cookies have cooled, melt chocolate in the microwave* and fill a pastry bag fitted with a #3 tip (or just snip a small hole in the tip) with the chocolate and swirl it into the indentations in the middle of the cookies. I had some leftover blue chocolate so I heated that up as well and swirled it on top of the milk chocolate to create the design.

*The book suggests this shortcut: Put the chopped milk chocolate in a double boiler in a zip lock bag. Heat until melted and then snip a corner off the bag to fill the cookies.