Olive Oil Thumbprints With Lemon Curd

Adding a healthy glug of olive oil to shortbread dough causes what are already tender cookies to dissolve to crumbs in your mouth. When you’re mixing it together, the dough will feel crumblier than a butter dough, but have faith: It seizes together nicely in the oven.

You can fill these thumbprints with jam or melted chocolate or maple-​flavored confectioners’ sugar icing, but I like to lean into the Italian spirit of the rosemary-​scented olive oil cookie and fill them with a spot of lemon curd. To me, lemon curd is one of those recipe marvels. It doesn’t matter when you add the butter, at the beginning or the end; it turns out either way. The only trick is to stir with two alternating utensils: a whisk to prevent clumping, and a rubber spatula to clear the sides of the bowl. Beyond that, the process is an immersive, intuitive, lemon-​scented experience.

This recipe was excerpted from 'Company' by Amy Thielen, one of our favorite cookbooks of 2023. Buy the full book on Amazon.