These classic thumbprint cookies are buttery, crumbly, melt in mouth and absolutely delicious. Made with simplest of shortbread cookie dough and adorned with homemade raspberry jam these cookies scream festival in every bite 🙂 These are eggless too.
Follow my easy recipe and bake a big batch, these come so handy for holiday season and festival gifting:)
For more eggless cookies do check chocolate chip cookies, custard creams, coconut cookies, brownie cookies recipes.
So how is your holiday baking coming along? If you are planning on recipes to bake for Christmas or holiday gifting, I have got you a winner of cookies 🙂
Today’s recipe is an all time favorite classic. Shortbread thumbprint cookies or jelly cookies with homemade jam or jelly 🙂
These cookies are an absolute favorite at home and when ever I bake these they get over in the blink of an eye.
These are buttery, melt in mouth and not overly sweet with that flavor packed jam or jelly bit in the middle. Perfect texture, taste and balance of flavors and you can fill these cookies with so many things.
While the traditional thumbprint cookie dough mostly contains eggs, my recipe is eggless and 100% vegetarian.
If you are planning to get cozy and turn on that oven, start with these cookies and I promise you will be glad you did 🙂
About This Recipe
Thumbprint cookies are classic sugar cookies or shortbread cookies with a indentation in middle filled with jam or jelly.
They go by different names in different parts of the world. They are called rosenmunnar, raspberry cave in Swedish, jam drops in Australia and thumbprint cookies in the United States. In whichever you call them, these are special little treats that will surely put a smile on your face.
It is super easy to make thumbprint cookie recipe at home. All you need are few basic simple ingredients. You can use shortbread cookie dough recipe or sugar cookie dough for this recipe.
The recipe of shortbread dough I am sharing here is something I have been making for more than a decade. It is a truly time tested recipe that I have perfected after so many batches.
This recipe yields you shortbreads that is light, crumbly, buttery and melt in mouth. They also have the perfect color, they do not turn dark non uniformly.
what I like the most about this recipe is, these cookies are not overly sweet and so these are the perfect vehicle for those jam drops.
Bake these cookies today as a part of your holiday baking, for gifting or simply to make your tea time extra special. Kids will love this with a glass of milk 🙂 These cookies are
Insanely delicious and addictive
buttery, crumbly and light as feather
melt in mouth
not overly sweet
perfect with milk or coffee or tea
great for holiday gifting
100% vegetarian.
Thumbprint Cookie Recipe Ingredients
Butter– I like to think butter as the base of this recipe. While most of the recipes call for unsalted butter, you can also use salted butter here. Just omit the pinch of salt you would add in the dough.
You will need soft butter at room temperature. Please do not melt the butter or use it directly from the refrigerator.
To get that signature flavor and crumbly texture of shortbread cookies adding the given quantity of butter is crucial.
Sugar– I recommend granulated white sugar for this recipe to get the classic taste and texture. We need to powder the granulated white sugar, measure and use in this recipe.
Flour– Again to make these cookies just like the ones from bakeries use all purpose flour or plain flour as mentioned in the recipe. You can easily use wheat flour but the texture, taste and color of the cookies will vary. It will be good but different.
Corn starch– Makes these cookies delightfully crumbly, light and melt in mouth. If you do not have corn starch just replace it with plain flour or almond flour.
Flavoring– You can go for classic flavors like vanilla or use few drops of flavoring similar to the jam you are adding. Like if you are using strawberry jam, then you can also flavor the dough with few drops of strawberry flavor and also color if you like.
I have added vanilla bean powder in this recipe.
Salt- A pinch of salt is must if you are using unsalted butter. If salted butter is used skip adding salt.
Jam– any favorite jam like strawberry jam, raspberry jam, apricot jam, fig jam, pineapple or even mixed fruit jams
How To Make Thumbprint Cookies
Preheat the oven at 350 F / 180 C. Line a baking sheet with parchment or grease with cooking spray or butter. You can also use silpat to line the tray.
In a large mixing bowl combine soft butter and powdered sugar. Beat the mixture until it turns light, creamy and pale using an electric beater or stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment or hand held whisk.
Sift plain flour and corn starch . Whisk until they are mixed thoroughly.
Scrape the bowl well and add the flour mixture. Also add vanilla.
Mix to combine and form a dough. Do not knead the dough.
Now using a tablespoon as measure divide the dough 20-22 small balls. Arrange the cookie dough balls on the prepared baking sheet about 1.5 inches apart. Make an indentation in the center of each ball. Use your thumb or a round 1/4 teaspoon measuring spoon. Be gentle so that dough does not crack a lot.
Now plop 1/4 teaspoon jam or preserve on each indentation.
Bake in the preheated oven for 12-15 minutes and not more than that. The edges will very slightly change color and appear crispy. Remove the tray from oven and let the thumbprint cookies remain there for 5 minutes. They will cook as they cool. Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack and cool thoroughly. Store in airtight containers.
How To Freeze Thumbprint Cookie Dough?
During holiday season you can make this cookie dough in bulk and bake fresh cookies as required. This dough freezes well and can be stored for up to 4 months in freezer.
Prepare the dough as mentioned and cover well using a cling wrap or parchment and freeze. When needed thaw the dough for 15 minutes, shape and bake.
How To Store The Baked Cookies?
These cookies keep well for 2-3 days at room temperature and a week in refrigerator.
You can also freeze these cookies for a month. Bake and cool the cookies thoroughly. Transfer to freezer safe bags and freeze for up to a month.
Recipe Tips & Notes
Butter-The consistency of butter for cookie should be soft but not melted or even gooey. The butter should be still solid and you should be able to able to make a dent on it with your finger. If the butter is gooey the texture of the cookies will be altered.
Jam– You can use any flavored jam for this cookie. If the jam is very solid you can leave it at the counter top for an hour or microwave it for few seconds.
Measuring flours– If you are using measuring cup to measure the flours, make sure to level and measure. Once you take the flour in measuring cup, using a spatula and level the flours. This will ensure that your flour quantity is accurate and cookie won’t spread while baking.
Use the 1/4 teaspoon measuring spoon for uniform indentation– I prefer to use a measuring spoon for making indentation as it more nice and looks uniform. You can use your thumb absolutely. If you want to use your thumb, just gently press once with firm pressure.
Thumbprint Cookies Variations
Caramel
Hershey kisses
candy melts
nutella, fill the indentation after baking the cookies.
More Cookie Recipes
Almond Shortbread Cookies
Eggless Butter Cookies
Pistachio Cookies
I hope you will try this recipe and enjoy as much as we did. P
Easy Thumbprint Cookies
Equipment
- Electric beater or stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter soft
- 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar or powdered granulated white sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean powder
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons corn starch
- 1/4 teaspoon salt use only if using unsalted butter
- 1/3 cup raspberry jam or any flavored jam
Instructions
- Preheat the oven at 350 F / 180 C. Line a baking sheet with parchment or grease with cooking spray or butter. You can also use silpat to line the tray. In a large mixing bowl combine soft butter and powdered sugar. Beat the mixture until it turns light, creamy and pale using an electric beater or stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment or hand held whisk.
- Sift plain flour and corn starch . Whisk until they are mixed thoroughly. Scrape the bowl well and add the flour mixture. Also add vanilla.
- Mix to combine and form a dough. Do not knead the dough.
- Now using a tablespoon as measure divide the dough 20-22 small balls. Arrange the cookie dough balls on the prepared baking sheet about 1.5 inches apart. Make an indentation in the center of each ball. Use your thumb or a round 1/4 teaspoon measuring spoon. Be gentle so that dough does not crack a lot.
- Now plop 1/4 teaspoon jam or preserve on each indentation.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 12-15 minutes and not more than that. The edges will very slightly change color and appear crispy. Remove the tray from oven and let the thumbprint cookies remain there for 5 minutes. They will cook as they cool. Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack and cool thoroughly. Store in airtight containers.
Notes
- You can double this recipe.
- Make sure the butter is soft but not melted.
- Use only confectioner's sugar or powdered granulated white sugar for this.
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