Thumbprint Snowballs

These thumbprint cookies combine two holiday cookie classics into one: the jam-filled thumbprint and the powdered sugar snowball. The dough is loaded with finely ground walnuts, cinnamon, and grated lemon peel, giving each cookie a nutty, warmly spiced flavor before you even get to the bright raspberry jam center.

The lemon zest is the ingredient that sets these apart from generic thumbprint recipes. It adds a subtle citrus brightness that plays against the warm cinnamon and cuts through the sweetness of the jam. You won’t taste “lemon cookie," but you’ll notice something that makes each bite feel more alive.

Shaping the dough into 1-inch balls and pressing your thumb firmly into the center creates a well deep enough to hold the jam without it spilling over during baking. The powdered sugar goes on after the cookies cool completely, giving them that snowy, festive look that earned them the “snowball” name.

Kitchen Tips

• Chop the walnuts very fine. They’re mixed directly into the flour, so coarse pieces will make the dough crumbly and hard to shape into smooth balls.
• Press firmly but don’t go all the way through. You want a well, not a hole. If the bottom is too thin, jam leaks through during baking.
• Fill with exactly ½ teaspoon of jam. Too much and it bubbles over. Too little and the cookie looks stingy.
• Cool completely before sugaring. Warm cookies melt the powdered sugar into a sticky glaze instead of a fluffy dusting.

Variations

• Apricot or strawberry jam instead of raspberry for different flavor and color combinations.
• Pecans instead of walnuts for a milder, sweeter nut flavor in the dough.
• Chocolate thumbprints: Fill the wells with melted chocolate or Nutella instead of jam for a richer cookie.