We’ve documented a lot of different cookies tied to particular European cities, and have more on tap. But that happens in the U.S. too. This one is a specialty of our native city: Pittsburgh, PA. It is a thumbprint cookie with an odd, very tender, but almost chewy texture that is topped with a great pile of dense frosting. The cookie part always has sprinkles (known locally as “jimmies”), which are color coded to match the frosting. Chocolate and vanilla are the most common flavors, but it’s actually traditional to create something unique.
As always, skip to the bottom if you want the recipe without the background
The story in this case begins in the 1890’s when Kaufmann’s Department Store opened it’s showcase location “Dahntahn.” New York had Macy’s and Gimbel’s; Pittsburgh had branches of both stores, but Kaufmann’s reigned supreme. People took the trolley into the Golden Triangle just for the privilege of wandering its twelve enormous floors of retail glory.
The Arcade Bakery was located in a single, small room tucked into a nook off the entrance on 5th Avenue. I remember it well. They sold baked goods of all kinds, but these Thumbprints were the specialty of the house from the 1980’s on. Nowadays you find some version or another in every supermarket and bakery that tries to catch the essence of the city.
What Makes These So Distinct?
In a word, this is the cookie designed for people who home in on the corner pieces of a square cake because they have a touch more frosting per bit. The cookies themselves are plain, pleasant, and maybe a little bland. They’re topped with as much as two inches (2″!) of sweet American frosting.
That’s it in a nutshell.
The Cookie Part
This dough is a joy. The resulting cookie is a nice, simple shortbread with that unique texture, and is handy for many different uses. Just form the dough into a ball, roll it in something showy like chopped nuts or sprinkles, and then press in the thumbprint. Bake in a medium (350 F) oven for 15 minutes. One recipe makes two dozen (24) 3-bite cookies.
The frosting gets added on once they cool, obviously. But I meant what I said about this being a really handy recipe to keep in the files! Jam thumbprints work with this dough too. Put your jam in a microwave-safe bowl and zap it until it foams up with large bubbles. Let it cool, and then spread that on the top before baking. (The pre-cooking prevents it from bubbling over onto your tray).
Or you can combine things, like a jam heart under a frosting or meringue cap. Or you could use a ganache. Or bake the cookies with no filling, add a jam/filling on top, and then choose whether to coat the result.
On and on it goes, with no real stopping point. The master recipe for this shortbread is one of the best and most generally useful that you’re ever likely to find.
The Frosting Is U.S.-Level Sweet
Consider this a warning to our European friends and relatives. The U.S. sweet tooth goes way beyond anything that’s found overseas, or even in other parts of the western hemisphere. You’ve probably heard the stereotype. Maybe even a few jokes to go along with it. I, a native born son, am here to tell you that it’s neither a joke nor untrue. We Americans don’t oversweeten everything we eat; it’s just that we can – and we will when that suits the particular treat. Like this one.
Let me put it another way. I am a notorious chili head. I eat and enjoy peppers so spicy that more than one person will leave the room when I decide to make a real sinus clearer just for myself. I don’t do it for show, nor to prove my manhood. I just like that feeling of sweat breaking out on the forehead, and several decades of pushing that line have created a tolerance that few others possess. As some people from Thailand once told me, “They wouldn’t think you were strange in Bangkok, they’d just say that you like your food really hot.”
The U.S. tolerance and taste for sugar is like the Thai, Indian, Mexican, or my view on spicy peppers. If you have that tolerance and taste, you enjoy foods that push that line just as much as you appreciate normal, human-level foods that do not. If you don’t have that tolerance, you gape in some combination of awe and horror at what others are willing to consume.
The frostings in the recipe below are what Americans will call “good and sweet.” That means (A) they are exactly on point with what you’d buy in a Pittsburgh bakery, and (B) far too sweet for non-natives. We strongly recommend that those in the “B” category should cut the amount of sugar back by a solid 20-40% for the vanilla, and 50% for the chocolate. It will not have any significant effect on the overall volumes.
Part Of The Heritage Is Creating Your Own Versions
All accounts say that Kaufmann’s eventually sold as many as 70 different versions of this cookie. Bakers who’d ‘made their bones’ were encouraged to practice their creative chops on this recipe before branching out into something more artsy. The shop put them all out, and then quietly dropped the ones that didn’t sell.
Strawberry, caramel, cinnamon, spice… the list is endless. And that means that you should play around to create your own version if the basic recipe appeals to you! Want an example? The Kaufmann family seat was the Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece called Fallingwater, which is now a sort of architectural museum. The Fallingwater chef created this unique Peanut Butter Thumbprint as his homage to the cookie (which can also be made with a dab of grape jelly in the middle). It may be unique, but it’s also entirely traditional, because one-of-a-kind experiments are part of this cookie’s tradition.
CONCLUSION
If you are a native Pittsburgher, or especially a former Pittsburgher, this is a recipe to save and treasure. It’s a smell and taste of home.
Other American natives will enjoy it too. It’s a damned fine cookie with its festive sprinkles (“Jimmies” in Pittsburghese); one that’s absolutely perfect for bake sales; and one that can and should be varied to your individual taste.
If you hail from some other nation, you’ll enjoy the cookie too… if and only if you take some care to adapt the frosting to your own taste and tolerance for sugar. Your target is something that children will love, but many of their parents will roll their eyes about. That is the experience of the Kaufmann’s Thumbprint Cookie, even if the recipe will need some tweaking for your particular group of raucous, waiting-to-be-sugared-up school kids.
