Description
Thumbprint cookies are buttery, melt-in-your-mouth shortbread cookies rolled in sugar and filled with your favorite fruit jam. Customize the filling with chocolate, caramel, and more!
Ingredients
- 1 cup (226 grams) unsalted butter, softened
- ¾ cup (143 grams) granulated sugar, plus 3 tablespoons to roll the cookies in (optional)
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 ⅔ cups (320 grams) all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- 2 tablespoons (15 grams) cornstarch
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup jam or preserves of your choice
Instructions
- Cream the butter in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Make sure there are no lumps in the butter. Mix in the sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add the egg yolks and vanilla extract, and mix until combined. Then, mix in half of the flour, the cornstarch, and the salt. Mix until the flour is incorporated before adding the remaining half of the flour. Continue mixing until the dough looks crumbly but feels smooth to the touch. It shouldn’t be sticky, nor should it be dry.
- Use a medium (1 ½ tablespoons) cookie scoop to scoop out level scoops of dough, and roll the dough in your hands until round, smooth balls are formed. Roll the balls of dough in the extra granulated sugar, if desired.
- Place the dough balls about 1 inch apart on a small, parchment-lined baking sheet or cutting board. Use the back of a ½ teaspoon measuring spoon dipped in flour to press round indentations on top of each ball of dough, pressing carefully so you don’t get too many large cracks in the dough.
- If you are opening a new jar of jam or preserves or if it has just come out of the fridge, stir it up to help loosen the jam. Then, spoon about 1 teaspoon of jam into each indentation. Place the cookies in the fridge for at least 45 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper. Place the chilled cookies on one of the cookie sheets about 2 inches apart. I was able to fit 12-13 cookies on each sheet. Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, for 13-15 minutes, or until the cookies start to turn golden around the bottom edges.
- Let the cookies rest on the cookie sheet for 15 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack to cool completely before serving or storing in an airtight container.
Notes
Recipe Tips
- Press slowly. I found that if I pressed on the cookies too hard or too fast when making the indentation, the cookies were more likely to form large cracks.
- Bake one sheet at a time. Bake one sheet of thumbprint cookies at a time so that they bake evenly. If you only have one baking sheet, allow it to cool completely before you bake your next batch. Otherwise, the cookies will spread on the hot pan.
- Don’t overbake. For softer cookies, bake for 13 minutes. The longer the cookies bake, the taller they get and the more likely the jam may split on top from the indentations rising too much. The cookies continue to firm up while they cool on the baking sheet.
- Use a piping bag. To easily fill the cookies with jam.
- Don’t overfill the cookies. Aim for about 1 teaspoon per indentation. Otherwise, if you overfill the cookies with jam, it will leak over the sides.
Storage Instructions
- At room temperature. Once the thumbprint cookies are cooled, store them in an airtight container on the countertop for up to 3 days or refrigerate cookies in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Cookie
- Calories: 169
- Sugar: 9.5 g
- Sodium: 28.5 mg
- Fat: 8.2 g
- Carbohydrates: 22.1 g
- Fiber: 0.5 g
- Protein: 1.8 g
- Cholesterol: 35.7 mg