The perfect cookie for the holiday season or any occasion. Thumbprints are a delicious buttery shortbread cookie rolled in sparkling sugar and filled with your favorite jam. I mean, what’s not to love about this classic cookie, it’s easy to make with basic ingredients and are delicious!
- Prep time – 20 minutes
- Bake time -11 minutes
- Assembly time – 15 minutes
- Total time – 46 minutes
- Servings – 24 cookies
- Prep levelv-Beginner +
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Easy to make – Simple ingredients that come together with minimal prep. No fancy techniques or special equipment needed.
- Buttery, tender texture – These cookies melt in your mouth with a shortbread-like crumb that’s rich.
- Kid-friendly – Simple flavors everyone will love!
- Perfect for holidays & gifting – These cookies are popular on holiday cookie platters and make beautiful edible gifts.
Ingredient Notes
- Butter: Use softened unsalted butter. Unsalted lets you control the sodium, and the butter is the main flavor, so use a good one.
- Egg yolk: Just the yolk, no white. It adds richness and structure without making the doug cakey.
- Vanilla extract: Vanilla is the base. A small splash of almond extract is optional.
- All-purpose flour: Spoon it into your measuring cup and level it off. Scooping packs in too much and make the cookies dry and crumbly.
- Jam: Choose a thick, high-quality jam, ideally seedless if you want a smooth, glossy center.
Step-by-Step Instructions
In a large bowl, beat the softened butter until smooth. Add both sugars to the butter and cream together until well combined. Add the egg yolk and vanilla to the mixture and blend throughly.
In a medium bowl, sift or whisk the flour and cornstarch together. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Mix until fully combined. The mixture will be crumbly but will come together as you continue mixing it.
Shape dough into balls using the palm of your hand. Roll dough balls in coarse sugar and place on prepared cookie sheet. Using your thumb or the back of a 1/2 teaspoon measurer, press an indentation into the center of each ball.
Bake until the cookies are set and the bottoms are lightly brown. Remove from the oven using an oven mitt and cool on the pan for five minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire cooling rack. Before the cookies are completely cool, spoon in or use a piping bag and fill each indentation with jam.
For glaze: In a medium bowl, combine confectioners’ sugar and milk together. Mix with a fork until you make a good consistency easy for drizzling. Use a fork to drizzle each cookie with glaze.
Laura Belle’s Tips
- Forming cookies – When forming the cookie dough balls with the palm of you hands, be sure to make a really tight compact ball.
- Baking pan – For best results, always use a cool baking sheet when preparing your cookies for baking. This will help lessen the cracking of the cookies.
- Use jam and not preserves – I learned the hard way when I used raspberry preserves my first time making these holiday cookies. Preserves have pieces of fruit in it which may spill out on to the cookies and cause a mess.
What to Serve With Thumbprint Cookies
- Simple pairings – Fresh berries, whipped cream or mascarpone for dipping, vanilla ice cream, or a small cheese plate with brie and fruit.
- On a cookie board – Pair with other holiday cookies on a board at your next gathering. Buttery thumbprints complement molasses cookies, Greek almond cookies, soft pumpkin cookies, and old-fashioned chocolate fudge.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Yes, you can use any of your favorite jam flavors to make thumbprint cookies.
I used two different jams in the center of the cookies, a raspberry jam and a mango jam.
Very good friends of mine gave me a jar of homemade mango jam from their Jumpin Chicken Ranch. It is so incredibly delicious, I just had to use it in the centers of half of the cookies!
You can freeze thumbprint cookies two ways:
First, is after you form dough into round balls. They can be stored up to a month in an airtight container or freezer bag.
Secondly, is to freeze the baked cookies without the jam filling. Wait until you are ready to serve them to fill with sweet raspberry jam.
Cornstarch, which is often used as a thickening agent in sauces, doesn’t do that in cookies.
What cornstarch does, is help provide structure which is what you want for this type of cookie.
Yes, you can use almond extract instead of vanilla extract if you prefer.
All the other ingredients would remain the same but your cookies will have an almond flavor. They would be called, Raspberry Almond Thumbprint Cookies.
Shortbread thumbprints go by several names depending on the region and recipe. Common ones include jam thumbprints, butter thumbprints, jam-filled shortbread cookies, and jammy dimples.
When the dough is rolled in finely chopped nuts or coconut, they’re called birds nest cookies. In Sweden, a similar cookie is called hallongrotta, or “raspberry cave.
Yes. Linzer cookies are a close cousin, usually sandwiched with a cutout top instead of filled in a well. Butterballs, Polish tea cakes, Russian tea cakes, and snowballs are also related. They use a buttery, nutty dough, but they’re rolled in powdered sugar after baking and have no indent or jam.
Easy Raspberry Shortbread Thumbprint Cookies With Sugar Glaze
Delicious classic shortbread sugar cookies filled with raspberry jam and drizzled with a powered sugar glaze.
Ingredients
- 2 -1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup white granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup light brown sugar (tightly packed)
- 1 cup butter (2 sticks) – softened
- 1 egg yolk (room temperature)
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup coarse sugar (for rolling cookie dough balls in)
- 1 cup seedless raspberry jam (for center filling) at room temperature
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar (powdered sugar)
- 3 to 4 teaspoons milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Line baking sheet with parchment paper or baking sheet.
- In a large bowl, beat the softened butter until smooth.
- Add both sugars to the butter and cream together until well combined.
- Add the egg yolk and vanilla to the mixture and blend throughly.
- In a medium bowl, sift or whisk the flour and cornstarch together.
- Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Mix on medium speed, pausing occasionally to scrape the sides of the bowl until fully combined. The mixture will be crumbly but will come together as you continue mixing it.
- Shape dough into tight 1-inch balls using the palm of your hand.
- Roll dough balls in coarse sugar and place on prepared cookie sheet.
- Using your thumb or the back of a 1/2 teaspoon measurer, press an indentation into the center of each ball.
- Bake 11-13 minutes or until the cookies are set and the bottoms are lightly brown.
- Remove from the oven using an oven mitt and cool on the pan for five minutes. Then transfer cookies to a wire cooling rack.
- Before the cookies are completely cool, spoon in or use a piping bag and fill each indentation with jam.
- For glaze, in a medium bowl, combine confectioners’ sugar and milk together. Mix with a fork until you make a good consistency easy for drizzling.
Notes
- When forming the cookie dough balls with the palm of you hands, be sure to make a really tight compact ball.
- Always use a cool baking sheet when preparing your cookies for baking. This will help lessen the cracking of the cookies.
- Use jam and not preserves.
- Store cookies in a single layer.
- Cookies can be stored in an airtight container for 4-5 days.
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