Day 8: Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies

This recipe is a new one I made this year, and although it started from a recipe, I wasn't reading it very carefully so I ended up making several changes in the end and it became my own creation. I need to be careful not to eat too many of these because they turned out delicious! I'll add some notes to the recipe so you can follow the way I made them or stick to the original.

INGREDIENTS:

* 1 cup butter, softened
* 3/4 cup white sugar
* 3/4 cup corn syrup
* 1 egg
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

* Filling: I used Andes peppermint chips with crushed candy cane pieces in the middle for half the batch and the other half I added semi-sweet chocolate chips to the middle and once they melted a little added some chopped walnuts.

The original recipe uses the following for the filling: (add the chips first, let them melt then add the toffee and cherries)
* 1 (11 ounce) package white chocolate chips
* 1 (1.4 ounce) bar chocolate covered English toffee, chopped
* 1 (4 ounce) jar maraschino cherries, halved


DIRECTIONS:

1. Beat butter and 1/2 cup sugar in large bowl until well blended; stir in corn syrup, egg and vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and cinnamon (in the original recipe you don't add the cinnamon here); gradually add this dry mixture to butter mixture. Blend well. Cover and refrigerate dough for 1 hour or until firm enough to handle.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
3. Shape dough into 1 inch balls; (The original recipe has you roll them in the cinnamon + 1/4 cup sugar - I skipped this step, but it sounds good!). Using your thumb, make an indentation in center of each cookie (I found the end of a wooden spoon to work better).
4. Bake in a preheated 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) oven for 7 to 8 minutes or until just set.
5. Remove the cookies from the oven. If the indentation has grown indistinct, use the top of a spoon and press indentation in further. Immediately place your chocolate chips or other choice of filling in the middle. Cool cookies on a wire rack.