These savory cookies are insanely flavorful, easy to make and vegetarian! If you thought we spent all of December eating homemade Twix candy bars, or buttery melting moments cookies, or chocolate beer truffles, ginger cookies, or drinking white hot chocolate, that would only be partially true. 🙂 After all we made thumbprint cookies too! Except, these aren’t the kind you’d expect. These babies are savory cookies (just like my thyme and cheddar cheese savory cookies!). Savory Thumbprint Cookies with Bourbon Tomato Jam to be precise. I’m going to be quite frank, there’s no way I can do these cookies any justice with words here. These are some of the best cookies (savory or otherwise) that I’ve had, and I don’t say that lightly. And that bourbon tomato jam is a guaranteed crowd favorite! Mr. K is very easy to please when it comes to the food I make. He’s one of the least picky eaters out there and he will literally eat anything I put in front of him (bless him) with gusto. If he’s fairly quiet, then I can expect a standard “good food, thank you” response. But the more vocal he gets, the more he enjoyed it, I can tell. And these savory cookies, he couldn’t stop talking about!
Why we love these savory thumbprint cookies
Crisp on the edges, soft in the middle, with a kicked up sweet and spicy tomato jam in the center, these cheesy savory cookies are just so flavorful and unique! And these make the best starter recipes for your Christmas party or New Year’s Eve party. Or any other occasion for that matter. And these are vegetarian cookies to boot.
Imagine how your guests would be bowled over when they realize that these aren’t actually sweet cookies. Plus, this might be your only chance to get the better of your friend’s annoying kid, when he/she bites into one of these thinking they are regular sweet thumbprint cookies. That expression alone would be worth the effort, would it not? Not that I would know. I mean, I’d never do such a thing. Noooo, never. Aaaand they are so easy to make, even my hubs could make them. Seriously. The dough comes together quickly and you just make an imprint with your thumb to fill up with some delicious jam/jelly. So really, you got no excuse not to make them. They’d do really well as a party appetizer or even as tea time snacks. I made these because I needed a break from sweet cookies and bar recipes. As a huge fan of classic thumbprint cookies, I decided to give them a spicy, savory, flavorful twist. The result is truly glorious.
About the cookies
These cookies are crazy delicious with a fantastic jelly center. Here I made a cheese and rosemary cookie dough base and gave it a little bit of a spicy kick, using deseeded jalapeno. So the cookie on its own tastes insanely good, if you choose not to have a jelly/jam center.
Bourbon tomato jam
This just might be my favorite part about these cheesy thumbprint appetizers. I filled these up with an amazingly flavorful tomato jam that incorporates garlic and a few spices and then kicked it up with bourbon! Bourbon folks. Does it not scream PARTY APPETIZER?? Besides, slow roasted tomatoes, this tomato jam is my favorite way to preserve juicy tomatoes all summer long. Honestly, these came out even better than I expected, and we have now frozen the remaining cookies for later.
Storage instructions
You can easily refrigerate or freeze the formed cookies (before baking) without filling the center with jam, no issues there. Or even freeze the baked cookies in a single layer (if you stack them, the jam can stick to the bottom of the cookies). These cheesy savory thumbprint cookies will go really well with all kinds of fun cocktails, so all in all, these were meant to take center-stage at a party. Oh, and I made an even more amazing, flavorful dip for these cookies, and you can find the recipe for that super easy, sweet and spicy dip in my spicy mango relish post. If you liked this savory thumbprint cookies recipe don’t forget to subscribe for new (and free) recipes and updates by entering your email address below (and get all these recipes delivered straight to your inbox), so you don’t miss out on a thing. You can find me on FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, PINTEREST and GOOGLE-PLUS too.
