Thumbprint cookies that almost won’t leave their print!

The trouble with eating low sugar jams is that they turn bad quite soon because of the low amount of sugar in it! In our family of three, we have at least two to three bottles of jam in the fridge at any one time because we like variety but we don’t eat jam for breakfast every day – cos again we like variety! I buy jam with 70% fruit content and sweetened with Agave syrup, usually one of the berry types which are low in carbohydrates. The three of us have our favourites and won’t touch the other bottles.

So there always comes a time when I have to make a decision – do I toss out the expensive jam or use it up in some other recipe before it really goes off. Usually there’s not much jam left – maybe half a bottle and I combine jams from two bottles to make Shortbread Jam Bars. Absolutely yummy but…they contain flour and oats which means that I can’t enjoy much of it. I tried the recipe once with whole wheat flour (although the carb content difference between whole wheat and plain flour is minimal) and they were still good. Luckily for me, they don’t last long, being devoured up by family and friends. This time around, my leftover jam did not look enough to make  Shortbread Bars and I didn’t have another bottle of jam standing around. I then remembered making Thumbprint cookies once and decided to dig up the recipe to see if I could make it low carb.

My first attempt was a ‘half’ failure – I say half because I managed to salvage the cookies and didn’t have to bin them. I substituted the sugar called for Agave syrup. I would have used another sweetener but I didn’t have any. I also read that Agave syrup has a low glycemic index (GI) and I wanted to test its effects. Then I substitued the 1 cup flour with 1/3 cup whole wheat flour, 1/3 cup ground flaxseed and 1/3 cup almond meal. The rest of the ingredients remained as in the recipe. I already knew when I made the batter that something was wrong. It was difficult to form the dough into balls, despite refrigeration, to make the cookies. I added more almond meal and managed to complete the task. Then I was supposed to bake the cookies for 5 min, take them out, fill with jam and bake again. When I looked into the oven after 5 min., my cookies were sitting in a pool of butter. So I took them out, soaked up the butter with a paper kitchen towel, filled the cookies with jam and finished off the job. The end result was edible but looked like it could be worked on.

Well, to cut a long story short, I made more changes and am amazed at how un-lowcarb these cookies taste. I’m posting the recipe here with Agave syrup but I think the carb content can be lowered even further. I’ve ordered some erythritol and am going to give it another go. I just can’t wait to share this recipe, that’s why I’m posting it now.

Thumbprint Cookies ( yields 16 pcs)

80gr Butter

50gr Agave Syrup

1 egg yolk

½ tsp vanilla sugar

1/4 cup each wholewheat flour, flaxseed meal and soya flour

¾ cup ground almonds or hazelnuts

2 Tbsp high fruit content jam, preferably sweetened with Agave syrup

1/8 tsp salt

Line baking sheet with baking paper.

Cream butter and add Agave syrup and egg yolk. Mix in flours, ground almonds or hazelnuts, salt and vanilla sugar. Batter will be slightly moist. Put in fridge for 1 hr to firm up. If you think it’s still too wet, add more almond meal.

Preheat oven to 175 degrees C.

Make balls out of the dough and place on cookie sheet.

Bake for 5 min. Take out the tray from the oven, make dents with a small utensil (I used my 1/8 tsp measuring spoon), fill with jam and bake further for 10 min. Turn down the heat to 150 degrees C and bake another 10 min. The bottoms will be a bit darker than your usual cookies because soya flour burns faster. If you think it’s gone too far before your baking time is up, turn down the heat slightly. Practice makes perfect!

Fresh out of the oven, these cookies are crisp on the outside. They soften when kept in a cookie jar overnight but still taste as good.

Nutritional info per piece:

Total Cal- 73.9kcal; Fat – 5.8gr; Carbs – 4.2gr; Protein – 1.3gr

The original recipe had 11gr carbs per piece.

Print this recipe – Thumbprint cookies