Easy recipe for Soft Jam Thumbprint Cookies perfect for the holidays! Buttery cookies with great flavor, filled with your favorite sweet jam. Perfect for Christmas cookie exchanges!
These lovely Jam Thumbprint cookies are soft, buttery and are a great addition to your holiday baking list. They’re a classic cookie that everyone loves. Fill them with your favorite jam- whether it be store bought or homemade. I love strawberry jam and it’s what I use most often. I think they’d be incredible with raspberry or blackberry jam. Maybe I’ll try them out with Nana’s Spiced Peach Jam next!
How to make Jam Thumbprint Cookies
I love how simple it is to make such an gorgeous holiday cookie! To start you preheat the oven to 375º F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. I used an 11×17 jelly roll pan.
Gather all the ingredients together, making sure your butter is softened and that your egg yolks are separated from the egg whites. Use an electric mixer to mix the butter and sugar. Add in the egg yolks and vanilla. Combine the flour and salt together and then combine the wet and dry ingredients and mix in your electric mixer.
Using a small cookie scoop, make dough balls out of 2 teaspoon sized portions of dough. Put the ball on the parchment lined cookie sheet, setting the cookies 1 inch away from each other. Use a 1/2 teaspoon measuring spoon to indent each cookie. Don’t worry if the indents don’t look perfect or if the cookies crack a bit- just press the sides back together! You’ll actually “fix” the indents again after the cookies bake.
Bake the cookies for about 8-10 minutes. Let the cookies cool a few minutes, then use that same 1/2 teaspoon to re-indent each cookie, pressing sides back together to make them more rounded, if needed. Fill each cookies with your favorite jam and then place them back in the oven for 3-4 more minutes, to soften the jam. Let cool completely. The jam will take about 2-3 hours before it sets enough where you can stack the cookies.
How to make the best Christmas Cookie recipe
Three kitchen items really help you make the best Christmas cookies ever! I actually use these items in nearly every cookie recipe I make, as well as several other types of recipes, so they’re quite versatile. First, I line my cookie sheets with a piece of parchment paper. They’re sold in sizes that fit a 12×16 cookie sheet perfectly and enable to cookies to bake well without sticking- and no mess from spraying oil on the cookie sheets!
The second item is a KitchenAid mixer. I love mine! I have a Bosch as well but I find I use my KitchenAid for cookies. There is a cookie paddle that comes with every mixer that you attach to the top of the mixer. They’re easy to use and help you mix the ingredients uniformly. Add this to your wish list because it’s one of my all-time used small appliances ever!
The third item is a cookie scoop! Years and years ago I used to use 2 spoons to measure and scrape cookie dough onto the pans. It wasn’t a perfect process and I often ended up with oblong cookies in various sizes. A friend of mine brought cookies to a party and I noticed each and every one of her cookies looked PERFECT. Her secret? A cookie scoop! They come in three sizes- 1/2 tablespoon, 1.5 tablespoon and 3 tablespoon scoops. I used the smallest size- 1/2 tablespoon for these thumbprint cookies.
Soft Jam Thumbprint Cookies
- 1 cup butter (2 sticks, at room temperature)
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- Jam
Directions for making Soft Jam Thumbprint Cookie recipe:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Using an electric mixer, beat together butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes.
- Beat in egg yolks and vanilla extract. Add flour and salt and mix until incorporated and dough comes together in a ball. If desired, chill for 30 minutes.
- Form dough into 1-inch balls (make sure they’re perfectly round), and arrange on prepared cookie sheet. Use a ½ tsp. measuring spoon to create perfectly circular craters in the center.
- Bake cookies for 8 to 10 minutes. Remove cookie sheet from oven. If indentations look shallow, further define them again and fill each with a bit of jam.
- Bake for an additional 3 to 4 minutes, or until jam melts slightly and edges of cookies are lightly golden.
SOFT JAM THUMBPRINT COOKIES
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter 2 sticks, at room temperature
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- Jam
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Beat together butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla extract.
- Add flour and salt and mix until incorporated and dough comes together in a ball. If desired, chill for 30 minutes.
- Form dough into 1-inch balls (make sure they’re perfectly round), and arrange on prepared cookie sheet. Use a 1/2 tsp. measure to create perfectly circular craters in the center.
- Bake cookies for 8 to 10 minutes.
- Remove cookie sheet from oven. If indentations look shallow, further define them again, and fill each with a bit of jam.
- Bake for an additional 3 to 4 minutes, or until jam melts slightly and edges of cookies are lightly golden.
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You’ll want to try out our other popular Christmas cookies here:
How do you soften butter?
I like to soften butter by using the defrost function on my microwave. If you need the full 1/2 cup cube of butter, you can leave it in the paper wrapper, otherwise, place the amount of butter you need in a glass or porcelain bowl. I use the lowest defrost setting on my microwave and just let it run for 20 seconds. Check the butter and see how soft it is by pressing it with a rubber scraper. If it is still not soft to the touch, meaning it doesn’t indent when you press into it, let it warm for another 5-10 seconds. Watch it closely! Butter softens very quickly.
Can Thumbprint cookies be frozen?
Yes, you can freeze Jam Thumbprint Cookies in an airtight container for up to 1 month. Make sure you first let them sit on the countertop for 2-3 hours before stacking them in the airtight container, so that the jam has enough time to set. Store each layer with a piece of parchment paper in between so that the cookies will not stick together and maintain their prettiness when defrosted.
Easy recipe for Soft Jam Thumbprint Cookies perfect for the holidays! Buttery cookies with great flavor, filled with your favorite sweet jam. Perfect for Christmas cookie exchanges!
Judy says
Lovely recipe 🙂 I made these cookies for a family get together and they were a hit! I used strawberry jam for part and blackberry preserves for the other. I’m sure any type would work well. Great recipe! Thank you!
Alison says
Blackberry sounds delicious! Thanks for sharing, Judy!
Kaitlyn says
Everything about this recipe was perfect! I was surprised, I think these are the best cookies I’ve ever made! I’m going to try making it with gluten free flour next, hopefully they turn out well!
Olivia says
I’m so glad you liked them so much! Let us know how the gluten free version turns out!
Gwen says
these were really good! 8 minutes might have been a tad too long before adding the jelly but otherwise perfect. also could have been my oven’s fault, the temperature isn’t always correct. I added a touch of cornstarch to the raspberry preserves i used just to be sure it wouldn’t run and i’m glad I did.
Alison says
Yes I agree! This is why I feel like most recipes are even better making them the second time around!
Chey says
Loved this recipe, I found it worked better with 3 egg yolks instead of two, it wouldn’t stick together otherwise, but I made them with raspberry jam and nearly ate the whole batch to myself
Roe says
Amazing!! Easy to make and absolutely delicious!
A yummy treat for anytime.
Alison says
Thanks so much Roe!
Melissa Combrink says
Can you freeze the dough. It’s the 12th and we are getting our Christmas cookie doughs ready for the freezer to pull out Christmas eve to thaw and bake. If I make the cookies today they will be gone by tomorrow in my house.
Laura says
Can this be used to roll out and cut out with cookie cutters?
Jessica says
I worry the dough would be too tender to do cut-out cookies with!
Skye says
My cookies are delicious but always flat! What am i doing wrong?
Jessica says
Are you using softened butter?
Skye says
I sat the butter out for about an hour, was that too long?
Lesley says
I realize this is a ridiculously late comment to your question, but it sounds like you need to chill your dough before baking!
Beth says
These turned out exactly like I wanted! I used raspberry jam and drizzled white chocolate over mine! I used a slightly bigger cookie scoop (I think 1.5 T) but divided the ball in half. Thanks for all the tips throughout. I followed all of them. Thank you thank you! I only wish I could provide you a photo. I’m so proud 🙂
Jessica says
So glad to hear this Beth! Merry Christmas!
Gillian says
I found that 25g balls are perfect and I roll them into a ball and leave them that way for the 1st 8 mins. When I take them out to put the jam in that’s when I make the indent and it’s turned out much cleaner that way for me.
Also, if you forget the egg like I did the fourth time I made there because I was working for memory, just keep going because they still turned out awesome!
Angelica says
Amazing!! I used strawberry preserves and it was delicious!! 10/10
Jessica says
So glad to hear Angelica!!
Robyn says
These are amazing!!!
Christina says
This is one of my favorite cookies great for giving on Christmas
Alison says
Yes! They make excellent gifts!
Bz says
Not a soft cookie- these are like shortbread
Nicole says
Shortbread is a soft cookie in that it is tender and practically melts in your mouth. This is why we call these cookies soft.