Beat cream cheese and butter till soft. Add the sweetener and vanilla extract and beat until creamy. Add the egg and beat until blended.
Add the almond flour/meal, baking powder and salt and fold through until well combined. Bring mixture together to form a large ball. If mixture is too soft you can refrigerate for about 30 minutes to make it easier to handle.
Use a tablespoon to scoop out the cookie dough and form into a ball.
Place each ball onto baking paper on a baking tray. Flatten slightly then use your thumb or the end of a wooden spoon to create a well in the centre of each dough ball. You can reshape the edges of your cookies if desired using your hands if they split slightly.
Use a teaspoon to 3/4 fill your thumbprints. Too much jam will spill down the sides of your cookies. I like to top up the thumb holes after baking with jam and recommend that you do as well.
Bake for 15-18 minutes or until the cookies are baked through. If they are browning too much, reduce the temperature slightly.
Allow to cool on the baking tray until they firm up then transfer to a cooling rack to completely cool.
Once cool, melt 30 grams/ 1 oz of dark chocolate and either drizzle or spoon onto the top of each cookie. I like to just cover the jam and thumb print. Sprinkle with desiccated/shredded or coconut flakes and allow the chocolate to set before serving. Placing cookies in the fridge will speed up the setting process. You can top up the jam before topping with the melted chocolate.
Store in an airtight container.
Notes
My favorite sweetener to use in this recipe is erythritol as the cookies firm up slightly. Xylitol might be too fudgy to use in this recipe but a monkfruit or stevia blend will also work well. Remember that if you use erythritol, your cookies will continue to firm up for a few hours after they have been baked.The color of the jam may fade when the cookies are baked. Feel free to top up the jam slightly once they have cooked. If you are leaving these as jam thumbprint cookies, I place them back in the warm oven for a few minutes so the jam melts slightly as makes it easier to store as it will set more than fresh jam, and also means you get more jam in each cookie.For simple jam thumbprint cookies just omit the chocolate and coconut.