Tender shortbread thumbprints filled with perfectly sweet and tart cranberry orange compote and topped with white chocolate drizzle. Incredibly easy to make yet oh-so-good. And very addicting. #sorrynotsorry

If you want a new recipe to leave Santa or give to friends or eat by yourself while you binge watch Christmas movies this year, these are it. Speaking of Christmas movies, I just watched Holidate and Christmas Chronicles 2 and loved them both (but FYI, the former is not suitable for children). Totally cheesy and cute and funny without making me regret the time wasted on watching them.

Now, for those of you who hate long narratives before an actual recipe appears, back to Christmas cookies. 😉

I made these cookies because I knew they’d be easy. Right now I need easy. Between an overwhelming amount of grading left to do before finals next week and a toddler who won’t go to bed and requires an hour of failed attempts at being tucked in, I have no time or energy to make something fancy.

So instead of a dark chocolate candy cane cake—my signature Christmas cake that I’m trying to share with you soon—I made simple thumbprints with homemade cranberry compote and white chocolate drizzle.

Honestly, the hardest part of this recipe is the stirring.

But they’re SO good and SO addicting. The shortbread uses powdered sugar, giving it a soft and tender crumb. The compote isn’t butter or too tart, as many cranberry desserts can be. And the white chocolate gives these cookies a hint of sweet and tanginess that add some festive flair with minimal effort.

You get to look fancy and stay sane. You’re welcome.

How to make white chocolate cranberry orange thumbprints

First, make your cranberry orange compote. It takes like 10 minutes of stirring and requires 3 ingredients, so don’t use the canned stuff!

Let that cool (or you can even make it up to a couple weeks ahead of time) while you make your shortbread. Beat your butter until smooth, about 30 seconds.

Add powdered sugar and beat on low until combined then on high until fluffy, about 1 minute. Add the vanilla and beat on low until combined.

Add your flour and salt. Be sure you’ve spooned your flour into the measuring cup then leveled it off with the straight edge of a knife. This recipe is not forgiving if you add too much flour, which happens when you scoop the flour with the measuring spoon—it packs it in. Mix on low until fully combined and the dough just begins to stick to the beaters but hasn’t fully come together into a ball.

Roll into roughly 1 inch balls, rolling gently between your hands until smooth. This prevents cracks along the edges of your cookies once you press them down. Using your index and middle finger, gently press down the cookies until about 1/2 inch tall.

Use your thumb or the back of a round measuring spoon to create a hole about 1/2 tablespoon big. You can make it narrow or wide, shallow or deep. The cookies won’t change shape much in the oven, so create the thumbprint you like best.

Fill with about 1 tablespoon cooled cranberry orange compote. Freeze for 10 minutes or refrigerate for 20. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until no longer shiny and just slightly puffed up. You may or may not see the color deepen a bit, as these stay fairly blond, although you can always bake them a few minutes more to achieve a slightly golden color and crunchier cookie. Let cool on the pan.

While the cookies cool, melt your white chocolate. Place the chips or chopped white chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Fill a small saucepan with 1-2 inches water. Bring to a boil then turn down to medium-low (adjust as needed to keep a good simmer but not a rolling boil).

Set the bowl over the pan and stir the chocolate constantly until smooth. It might start to look separated, which is okay. You can fix this by adding a splash of heavy cream.

As soon as the white chocolate is smooth, you need to work quickly. Use a spoon to drizzle it over your cookies. Alternatively, you can place it in a piping bag or drizzle bottle. I used a spoon and made a mess and regret nothing.

Chill cookies in the fridge for 5 minutes to set the white chocolate.

Enjoy!S

Tips for this recipe

Spoon then level your flour

When you scoop your flour out with a measuring spoon, it packs it in more than you realize. When I learned to spoon my flour into my measuring cup then level it off gently with the straight edge of a knife, it really took my baking to the next level. In fact, I keep a spoon in my flour OXO container because I’d otherwise go through and absurd number of spoons. Since there are so few ingredients in the shortbread, it’s unforgiving if you end up with too much flour—even the amount added by sticking the measuring spoon straight into the flour bag/container.

Sugar is flexible

I’ve made this with a little less sugar (1/3 cup) and even a little more (2/3 cup). I’ve also used granulated sugar, but that doesn’t yield the beautiful texture that powdered sugar gives. This is partly due to the fine granules, which dissolve more easily into the butter. But the texture also comes from the cornstarch in powdered sugar. It gives your cookies the tiniest bit of rise while keeping them soft and delicate.

Don’t over mix the dough

This is the classic, elusive tip for all baking. It’s important because gluten can begin to form, which is why you knead bread dough to make it chewy but you don’t knead cookie dough or cake batter. Although I can’t imagine how you’d even go about kneading batter. 🤔 Anyway, you just want to mix this until the dough goes just past crumbly and starts to stick together. It’ll begin to pull away from the edges of the bowl and will start to clump up on your beaters. Stop immediately when this happens. If you keep mixing for even half a minute more, you may over mix it, causing a tough cookie (not the metaphorical kind). And now you know what over mixing means! Kind of. It’s the never ending saga of all bakers.

Use filling to taste

Well, I suppose you’re not tasting them quite yet. But you can make the hole in the cookies narrow or wide, deep or shallow. Fill it until the compote is level with the cookie or have the compote rounded on top. It’s all up to you! Personally, I wish I’d added more compote because it’s so good!

Stir white chocolate constantly

Melting white chocolate is among my least favorite baking things. I do it a lot because I love the result, but I’m literally always worried it’s going to seize or separate. Really, it just needs to cook low and slow with lots of stirring. And, depending on the brand, it may need some heavy cream to help smooth it out. Just keep stirring and don’t stress like I do.

Don’t skip the chilling

Chilling the cookies helps them keep their shape as they cook, so don’t skip that part. I’ve chilled them longer, but 10 minutes in the freezer is all you really need.

Don’t try to brown the cookies

I cooked these about 15 minutes, which was just barely enough because it’s winter and that’s just how things cook here in the winter. But these cookies don’t really get golden brown. They have only a few ingredients, which doesn’t include eggs or brown sugar—two things that help cookies brown. Instead, watch for the cookies to look no longer shiny at all and then begin to deepen in color. Basically, slightly less blond. Or, for an easier method, bake for about a minute after the shine is gone (to ensure the middle is also cooked through).

You might also like:

White Chocolate Cranberry Orange Thumbprints

Print recipe

prep time: 20 minutes (includes making cranberry compote)
cook time: 12-15 minutes
total time: 35 minutes, plus chilling time

Servings: 18-24 cookies

Ingredients:

for the cookies

2 cups (272g) flour, sifted (see note about not packing your flour)
¼ teaspoon (2g) salt (finely ground if possible)
1 cup (227g) softened unsalted butter
½ cup (65g) powdered sugar
1 teaspoon (4g) vanilla extract
½ batch cranberry orange compote (can be made ahead and refrigerated)

for the white chocolate drizzle

4 ounces (113g) chopped white baking chocolate or chips
optional: 1-2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

Instructions:

First, make the cranberry orange compote. It’s very easy and takes 10 minutes of stirring all three ingredients in a deep pot until it’s the right consistency. You can make this ahead and store it in the fridge.
Next, make the shortbread. Whisk together flour and salt. Set aside.
In a medium bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer--I couldn't use mine because it does best with larger quantities), whip the butter with a handheld electric mixer on high until creamed, about 30 seconds. Add the sugar and mix on high until light and fluffy, about 1 minute (longer if using a shortbread with granulated sugar). Add vanilla extract and mix, starting on low then increasing to high to fully incorporate.
Scrape the bowl then add the flour/salt and mix on low until fully incorporated, scraping the bowl if necessary. It will be crumbly at first then will suddenly start to stick to the beaters and pull away from the sides of the bowl. At this point, stop mixing.
Roll into roughly 1 inch balls. Place on a lined cookie sheet, at least 2 inches apart. Once all of your dough is rolled out, press two finger on it to flatten (optional, but helps them not be mounds of cookie). Next, press your thumb into the center of each cookie, creating a hole about the size of 1/2 a tablespoon. You can eyeball this part based on how much compote you want in each cookie. Just don't let the bottom of the well be too thin or it won't hold your compote.
Chill dough at least 20 minutes in the fridge or 10 minutes in the freezer. You can chill them up to a few hours if needed, but cover with plastic so they don’t take on any funny tastes from the fridge or freezer. Preheat the oven to 350 while the cookies chill (or when ready to bake).
Spoon desired amount of cranberry orange compote into each cookie, filling to the top of the hole but not above. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until cookies aren't shiny/wet looking and the color begins to deepen ever so slightly (this may be hard to notice, so you can always stick with about 1 minute after they stop having the unbaked dough shine to them).
While the cookies cool, make the white chocolate drizzle. (I let the cookies cool on the pan while I made the white chocolate drizzle, but you could remove them to a cooling rack after 10 minutes then make the drizzle. I just knew I preferred cleaning the drips off my silicone baking mat rather than the wire of a cooling rack.) Add chopped white chocolate to a heatproof bowl and set over a proportionately sized saucepan with 1-2 inches simmering water (wait until it boils and is turned down to medium-low before you add the bowl). Stir chocolate constantly with a rubber spatula until melted and smooth. It may start to look separated, but just keep stirring. Add a splash or two of heavy whipping cream if needed to help smooth it out, but not too much or the cookies will need to be refrigerated for safety.
Once it’s melted and smooth, work quickly to drizzle over the cookies with a spoon or by placing melted chocolate in a piping bag, plastic baggie with a tiny corner cut off, or in a squeeze bottle. Chill cookies for 5 minutes in the fridge to set the chocolate.

Enjoy! Cookies will last in an airtight container for 2-3 days.